


La Douleur Exquise

by Sheksper



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Boys Kissing, Derogatory Language, Eventual Relationships, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Galra Keith (Voltron), Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Langst, M/M, Misunderstandings, Slow Burn, Stargazing, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-21
Updated: 2017-08-02
Packaged: 2018-12-05 02:32:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 23,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11568498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sheksper/pseuds/Sheksper
Summary: Keith and Allura are a lot closer than they had been. Or maybe it's just Lance's imagination? Whatever it is, Lance is in love and he's holding onto threads of hope that maybe, just maybe, he has a chance.





	1. You're a Catch

**Author's Note:**

> Heyo! Welcome to this thing I wrote! Keith and Allura are my brotp. Actually, Keith and literally anyone in the show is my brotp because I just want Keith to have friends, oh my god, please. So, here we are!  
> This fic has been pre-written, because that's how I roll, and it will be updated every three days unless I can't post for whatever reason, but I will try to stick to the schedule as closely as I can.  
> I also wanna thank my dude, bud, bro, mate, pal for giving me this idea when she screamed at the tv that Keith's Galra reveal and Allura's reaction would have been better if the writers had actually bothered to develop their relationship at all. Thanks!  
> Now on with the story!

It had only been a couple quintants since Allura and Keith set out on an escape pod together in the middle of the night. Sure, it had been to make sure that Zarkon wasn’t tracking the team by either of them, but why the hell would Zarkon be tracking Keith? His reasoning was that he had fought one-on-one with Zarkon and perhaps he had been imprinted. That didn’t make much sense if you asked Lance. He could see how Allura might be the one who Zarkon was tracking them through, but Keith? No, that would be ridiculous. Which was precisely why Lance could only see the entire scenario as an excuse on Keith’s part.

Lance raised his spoon to his mouth, eating the green goo. As subtly as he could, he glanced out of the corner of his eye at the boy in question who was sat next to him. Furrowing his eyebrows, he watched as Keith ate with his usual look of vaguely angry disinterest on his face. Everyone at the table was having a conversation about some planet or whatever, but Lance was too far into his thoughts to really pay much attention. He shifted his eyes around to the others but no one was looking at him.

What an odd coincidence it was that Keith and Allura would both have the idea to run away at the same time and end up in the pod together. Allura would surely have tried to stop Keith if that was the case, wouldn’t she? To have the paladins separated while waiting for Zarkon to show up would be just about the worst move anyone could make. So, why hadn’t she sent Keith back? Keith was a pretty stubborn guy and probably would have just left on a different pod had she told him off, but maybe it was something more. Maybe, they had been planning it together and it wasn’t as random as it seemed.

Lance had made a comment about Keith and Allura sitting in a tree at the time and no one had responded. Then again when they got Keith and Allura back, Lance had asked if Keith was _with_ Allura. He hadn’t gotten a response that time either. Could it be that Allura and Keith really were together? There’s no way, right? Of course, they had been a lot closer to one another since their return; standing next to each other more, talking to each other more, hanging out together more _, smiling_ at each other more. But that didn’t have to mean that they were together. Lance could be stretching it out to be more than it was. He hadn’t paid much mind to what Allura and Keith were doing before then. Perhaps they had always been that friendly.

“I don’t know, Shiro. You remember what happened last time, don’t you?” Hunk gave a hesitant expression to Shiro, taking another bite of goo as he did.

A sudden laugh broke out from Pidge. “I remember that!” She smiled at Hunk.

Hunk glared. “It wasn’t that funny!”

Lance had no idea what any of them were talking about. Next to him, Keith had an amused smile on his face. Shiro shook his head but there was a clear huff of laughter from him. Allura, who was seated at the head of the table, used her hand to cover the smile on her face.

“He looked like an evocula!” Allura commented through her laughter.

Suddenly, Keith dropped his spoon onto the plate with a loud clank and coughed. Everyone worriedly stared at him and Lance was prepared to put his hand on Keith’s back in an attempt to help him, but before he could, Keith cleared his throat. A wide smile was along his face and he was laughing. He snorted accidentally as he calmed down. Lance found it much more adorable than he thought he would and his cheeks tinted with pink slightly.

Keith pointed to Allura, the smile never leaving his face. “In Lozoak season, yeah?”

Allura clapped her hands together and tilted her head back as she released a startled guffaw. “Yes!” she cried. One seat over, Coran was chortling to himself. Lance stared at the two of them for a moment, trying to understand the joke. The others at the table looked just as confused as Lance felt. No one else was laughing except for Allura, Coran, and Keith. It was clearly a joke that only someone who knew Altea would understand, so why was Keith laughing and being so buddy-buddy with Allura.

Lance felt his heart drop a little. Keith and Allura really were closer since the escape pod incident and he wasn’t just imagining it. There was no need to panic though. It didn’t mean they were an item or anything. Normally, Lance wouldn’t care who was dating who and he would just be happy for them. But this was different. This was Keith. Lance had been head over heels for Keith since the moment he met him. It did start out with admiration for him since he was the Garrison’s best pilot, but it was also a crush. Lance had a crush on Keith. For the longest time, Lance had tried to get closer to him but Keith was just so shut off from everyone else. The crush had never gone away though, it only developed.

They had grown close while being in the Castle, even though Lance had created the rivalry between them. Keith just challenged him right back and encouraged it. They were friends. Lance could say, with confidence, that he and Keith were friends. That was great. That was fine. There didn’t have to be anything more there, even though Lance wanted it, but to see Keith with someone else hurt Lance. Did Keith even like boys? Since when did Keith ever like girls?

Lance stared down at his food and tried his best to drown his feelings. Keith could date people, he didn’t need Lance’s permission. Lance swallowed thickly and clenched his eyes shut for a moment, listening to Keith laugh next to him.

The rest of the breakfast went by fairly quickly for Lance. It was always pretty fast since they had to get on with other things, but Lance had been stuck in his thoughts for the majority of the meal. He grabbed his empty plate upon finishing his food and trudged back to the kitchen to wash his dishes. By that point, most of the others had left except for Keith and Pidge. Without looking at either of them, he exited into the hallway.

His original plan was to return to his room or maybe find Hunk and hang out with him, but before he could, he was alerted to someone hurrying after him.

“Lance!” It was Keith’s voice.

Lance really wasn’t in the mood to deal with anyone, but just the fact that Keith was searching for him and not Allura was enough to lift his spirits and he stopped. “Keithers, what can I do you for?”

Keith hurried up to him, slowing down to stand in front of him. There was a shy smile on his face as he stared at Lance. “I was just about to go train and–”

Snorting, Lance bumped his elbow into Keith’s arm. “You? Training? Wow, who would have guessed?”

The black-haired boy’s face fell into an unimpressed glare, but Lance could tell there was a layer of amusement there. It made Lance feel lighter and he could feel a genuine smile pulling at his cheeks. “I just thought you might want to train with me,” Keith finished.

Lance’s heart palpitated. “If you wanted some pointers from the best paladin, you could have just asked, Keith.” He shifted his nose up in a pretend show of superiority.

Keith shoved his chest which caused Lance to stumble backwards. “Shut up. Let’s go train.” He was smiling.

“Sure thing, mullet.” Lance couldn’t help the warmth that spread through him after making Keith smile like that at him. Take that, Allura!

The pair of them wandered to the training deck, chatting the entire time.

“What kind of training are we doing?” Lance asked, doing his best to keep his hands in his pockets and not do something stupid like grab Keith’s hand and ruin their entire friendship.

Keith hummed for a moment before answering, “I was thinking the gladiator first and then the back-to-back protecting exercise.” He tilted his head toward Lance as if asking for his opinion.

“Sounds good. You’re going down either way.” Lance gave his most charming, yet still challenging, smirk.

“It’s teamwork training, Lance. You have to work with me.” Keith rolled his eyes.

Laughing lightly, Lance bumped his shoulder against Keith’s. Lance was aware of how much he was touching Keith but he couldn’t bring himself to stop. He wanted so badly to be closer to Keith. Lance always felt that way, but this time he was sure it had something to do with his new suspicion that Keith really was dating Allura. “That’s fine too then, we make a great team.”

“Yeah… Yeah, we do.” There was a small quirk in Keith’s lip as he glanced up to Lance and then back down the hallway. Lance was sure he could see a pink tint to Keith’s cheeks, but it was probably just his own wishful thinking. It caused his heart to rise up his throat with a sense of hope anyways.

Once they were at the training deck, Keith removed his jacket and tossed it to the side of the room. Lance tried his best not to watch Keith while he did so, but he did sneak a few glances in. Copying Keith’s movements, Lance also removed his own jacket and let it drop to the ground over top of Keith’s. The red bayard was already clipped to Keith’s belt and he readied it at his side, letting it transform. Lance’s bayard was in the armoury. He entered the room and removed his weapon from its spot in the casing before returning to the training deck.

Keith was stood in the middle of the room, rolling his shoulders and stretching his arms. “Ready?” he asked. His shoulder joint cracked.

“You bet!” Lance called. He jogged over to join Keith and shifted his bayard into the gun.

Keith smiled at Lance’s enthusiasm and lowered himself to balance on his legs easier. “Start training level eight!” he yelled to the room.

“Eight?!” Lance cried. It was too late though; the gladiator was already manifesting.

Charging at Keith, it whipped its sword out to swipe him off his feet. Keith easily dodged and countered with his sword. “What?” he called to Lance with a smirk. “Too difficult for you, sharpshooter?” Keith grunted as he slashed at the gladiator.

Lance was shaken from his panic and aimed his blaster. “No way, samurai, step aside!”

The gladiator was pressing down on the sword as Keith blocked the attack. There was a look of strain on his face but he huffed a clipped laugh at Lance’s words. Racing around the fight, Lance dropped to one knee and shot at the gladiator in quick succession. Instantly, the giant bot tumbled back and away from Keith, quickly regaining its footing and repositioning the staff in its hands. Keith took the opportunity to rush the gladiator, slashing into the torso. It jumped out of the way too late and began fighting Keith. He was doing well though, Keith was pushing it back, grunting and yelling as he moved. Lance got momentarily distracted by the fluid motions of Keith, feeling the fluttering in his chest at the sight of the boy. No, not the time!

“Keith, crouch!” Lance yelled, racing forward. Without a second thought or even a turn towards Lance, Keith ducked under the staff of the gladiator as it sliced through the air and he stabbed his sword into the floor, leaning on it. His back was flat and Lance took the chance to swiftly roll over Keith’s back, briefly disorientating and confusing the simulator bot. Once he was back on his feet, he jammed the gun into the face of the bot and pulled the trigger. The entire head exploded and the rest of the gladiator disappeared into a short flash of blue.

Lance watched for a moment, resting his arm at his side with the gun to the floor. “That was awesome!” He turned back to Keith, laughing, “I can’t believe the back rolling worked!”

The other boy was panting and grinning at Lance as he approached. “Level nine?”

“You sure? You look a little winded there, Keith,” Lance teased.

Keith punched Lance in the shoulder, causing him to stumble back. “That’s because you fight with a gun, dumbass.”

Lance laughed, “Gross, you’re all sweaty!” He pretended to swipe Keith’s touch off his shoulder, as if it hadn’t given him butterflies. A challenging side smile slithered along Keith’s face. “Keith…” Lance warned. Suddenly, Keith dropped his sword, took a step forward, and wrapped his arms around Lance’s neck to pull him down and force Lance’s face into his own neck. Lance was positive that he was about to have a heart attack. His face was buried in the neck of the boy he was in love with. It was enough to cause Lance’s mind to momentarily shut down. Keith was sweaty and gross, sure, but he was also giggling and adorable, and it took every ounce of willpower that Lance possessed to not kiss Keith in that moment.

After a second – although it felt like forever and no time at all in Lance’s mind – Keith pulled Lance away from him. “Now we’re both all sweaty,” he snickered. Then he retrieved his bayard from the ground and rolled his shoulders again. “Starting training level nine!”

Lance was still recovering when the gladiator dropped down and he nearly got whipped across the room.

 

◊ ◊ ◊

 

Sprawled out on the floor of the green lion hangar, Lance watched Pidge and Hunk tinkering with pieces of equipment. His limbs were stretched as far as he could stretch them and he was flicking a wrench through his fingers.

It had been a week since the training deck incident happened and it was still very fresh in Lance’s memory. Keith and him had hung out many times after that as well, just like they usually did. Most of the time it was training but sometimes it was just getting something to eat, chilling in the lounge, or playing games together. Keith was still just as close with Allura; one time, Lance had seen Keith rest his arm around Allura’s shoulders while they were checking out a planet in the bridge, which hurt Lance a lot more than he would ever admit. But something still got to Lance and convinced him that there was hope for him and Keith.

All of this had led to Lance laying on the ground while his best friends worked. “Hey, guys?” Lance asked to the ceiling.

“Yeah, Lance?” Hunk paused his repairs to glance at his friend.

Lance hesitated. “What do you think about Keith?”

At that, both Hunk and Pidge stopped. “What do you mean?” Pidge quirked an eyebrow.

Sighing, Lance shifted himself so that he was on his side with his head propped up on his palm. “Have you noticed anything odd about him? Or has he said anything to you?” It sounded so much more stupid when Lance asked his question out loud, but he went with it anyway.

“Not really.” Hunk squinted at him. “He seems like the same old Keith to me.” He turned to Pidge.

“He’s closer with Allura. Is that what you mean?” Adjusting her glasses, Pidge tilted her head in confusion.

Lance groaned and let himself fall back onto the floor. “Yes! Don’t you think that’s a little, I don’t know, weird?”

Pidge and Hunk exchanged a look. “No…” Hunk answered. “Why would that be weird…?”

“Because Keith is so,” Lance made a vague waving hand gesture, “and Allura is so,” he made another, more delicate gesture, “and they just don’t mix!” He smashed his fingers amongst each other in an angry show of what he was saying.

Hunk leaned over to Pidge without taking his eyes off Lance. “What…?” he whispered to her, but Lance could hear him.

“He’s close with you as well and the both of you don’t seem like you would mix,” Pidge pointed out, returning to her work.

“Well, I _guess_ so…” he mumbled, unsure.

Pidge sighed, “Is this about your crush on Keith?”

Lance glared at her out of the corner of his eye. “No…” He was lying and they all knew it.

“Oh my god, Lance. You’re just jealous of Allura.” She made an exaggerated arm toss to the sky, nearly dropping the tool in her hand.

“Well, yeah! He’s maybe dating Allura, why wouldn’t I be jealous?!” Lance mimicked Pidge’s arm movement.

Hunk made an expression of surprise. “Keith is dating Allura?”

“Maybe!” Lance’s voice was much higher pitched than he had intended. “There’s no reason they wouldn’t be! They’re both really hot and badass, and they seem to like each other’s company a little too much! They’re probably in love with each other and they’re going to get married and have kids! And you know what?! Their kids would be hot and badass too!” Lance hadn’t even noticed when he had started to cry. It wasn’t full on sobbing, but there were tears trickling from the corner of his eyes and down his temples, into his hair. Finally, he stopped and just laid there.

Everything was silent in the hangar as Hunk and Pidge stared, wide eyed, at Lance. Sniffling, Lance wiped at the tears. He could feel his heart aching in his chest and he tried his best to calm himself. His friends probably thought he was being ridiculous.

“Buddy, it’s okay,” Hunk reassured, placing his screwdriver on the ground to rest his hand on Lance’s arm comfortingly. “You don’t even know if they _are_ dating.” He smiled encouragingly.

Pidge joined in, lifting herself with her crossed legs to better stare down at Lance. “Lance, I really don’t know what’s going on with Keith and Allura, but I’ve seen the way Keith acts around you and I think it goes a little bit beyond friends. I think you have a chance.” Her tone was serious. “If you need any help, Hunk and I are here for you.”

“That’s right!” Hunk added.

“Okay, Lance?” finished Pidge, awkwardly placing her hand on Lance’s shoulder.

Lance glanced between the two of them for a moment from his spot on the floor. The tears in the corners of his eyes had steadily stopped. “You really believe Keith might like me?” he asked in a small voice.

“Of course!” Hunk laughed. “I mean, why wouldn’t he? You’re a catch, Lance.”

Pidge gestured to Hunk in a way that said she agreed with him. “And if it’s any consolation, you and Keith would have hot, badass kids too.” Her eyebrows waggled and Lance laughed even through his blush.

“Thanks guys.” Lance pushed himself into a seated position and yanked Pidge and Hunk into a giant group hug. Hunk accepted readily, but Pidge choked a little, relenting after a moment.

“Alright, too much love for me,” she said finally, pulling away and turning back to her project. Lance smiled at his friends. They were the best friends he could ever hope for and he knew they would be there for him no matter what. He also knew they would never lie to him. Hopefully, they were right about Keith.

 

◊ ◊ ◊

 

Another two days of hanging out and training with Keith, and Lance was feeling more and more like he and Keith might be able to have something. Sure, Keith was still doing things with Allura and even the others, but it wasn’t bothering him as much anymore. That just seemed to be Keith once he opened up and got to know people. The talk he had had with Hunk and Pidge had helped him a lot to feel more confident about their relationship too. Keith was really touchy with Lance but he wasn’t with anyone else on the ship, Lance had noticed. Except for Allura. He would still drape his arm around her shoulders and sometimes she would hug him. That didn’t have to mean anything though. Lance reminded himself of that daily.

It was the middle of the night and Lance was just finishing up his nighttime facial routine. Washing his face always brought him a sense of repose. He was already in a good mood from spending half the day training with the team and the other half relaxing in the lounge, Keith at his side as opposed to Allura’s, he’d noticed.

After his face mask was all in place, Lance made his way over to the bed, getting ready to settle down and go to sleep. The covers were pulled back, but before he could get in, he heard a noise. It was through the wall from the room next to him. That was Keith’s room. He didn’t mean to listen in on what Keith was doing, but he couldn’t help it since Keith was leaving his room. Where was that boy going? It was time to sleep. He better not be going to the training deck again. That kid could work himself to death if he tried hard enough.

Except, instead of wandering past Lance’s room in the direction of the training deck like Keith sometimes did, the footsteps went the other way. Lance paused. He dropped the blanket back onto the bed and wandered over to the door of his bedroom. Instead of opening his door, he just pressed his ear against it. The footsteps could still be heard, not slowing or stopping. Once he could no longer hear the steps, Lance opened the door and poked his head out.

Just as Lance checked, Keith was slipping around the corner and out of view. Narrowing his eyebrows, Lance left his room, closing the door behind him. He was still in his robe and blue lion slippers, but that wasn’t going to stop him. As quietly as he could with his clacking slippers, Lance hurried down the hallway, past all the bedrooms of the other paladins. His slippers did make noise though, and he cringed. Once he was at the corner, Lance pushed his back up against the wall and peeked into the next hallway over.

Keith, still in his usual clothes, sans his jacket and fanny packs, was casually sneaking along. Lance squinted suspiciously as Keith rounded another corner. Where the hell was he going? Lance tip toed as fast as he could down the hall after him. He had his arms spread out in a ridiculous attempt to balance him, as if it would quiet his movements. It didn’t.

The same situation went on for a little while longer as Lance stalked Keith through the castle. He was actually surprised that Keith hadn’t noticed that he was being followed yet. Keith either had to be really out of it or Lance was much better at sneaking than he had originally thought. Eventually, Lance turned the corner, expecting to see Keith at the end of it, but he wasn’t there. Lance paused. He glanced around the hallway again, as if he had missed something, but Keith wasn’t there. Lance furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. Slowly, he wandered through the hall. He wasn’t even trying to muffle the noise of his feet anymore.

Lance was around halfway to the end of the hall when he was halted by a noise. To the left, through a giant door, he could hear laughter. It sounded higher in pitch and Lance suddenly realized that he had followed Keith into the hallway where the royal bedrooms were. That was Allura’s bedroom. Allura was laughing. Something in Lance’s stomach dropped and it took him less than a second to connect the dots as to where Keith was going. He didn’t want to believe it. In fact, he told himself that there was absolutely no way, but he had to know. He had to.

Reluctantly, and with much dread, Lance stepped closer to the door. Raising his hand to the door, Lance knocked. It was much harder of a knock than he was intending but every part of his body felt like lead. The laughter paused. There was a flurry of rushed shuffling inside and then the door was opened. Allura stood in the doorway with her long, blue nightgown on. Her hair was down and flowing around her as she smiled easily at Lance.

“Oh, what’s the matter, Lance?” she asked. Behind her, Lance could hear something clatter and her eyes widened. It caused a sense of helplessness to bubble up inside of him. He almost didn’t remember to answer her question.

“I saw Keith come by here a moment ago. Have you seen him?” Lance asked. His voice was miraculously level compared to how devastated he was feeling in that moment.

The princess paused for a moment. “Keith?” she said his name, as though she had never heard of a Keith in her entire life. “No, I don’t believe so…” Subtly, Lance attempted to lean to the side so he could see farther into her bed chamber but as he did, she followed his motion, blocking the entrance further.

Once again, there was a sharp thud from in the room. “Fucking hell,” a muffled grunt of pain whimpered. It was Keith. Lance had heard that same tone of voice while training with the boy as often as he did. No doubt about it, that was Keith. In Allura’s room.

“Why’re you lying?” Lance stared dead into Allura’s eyes, seeing the surprise. He had surprised himself then too, but he was on the verge of breaking into tears at the same time. He knew Keith was there, but something still convinced him that _maybe_ there was a chance that that wasn’t him. Without waiting for a response, Lance pushed past Allura. It was very obviously rude, on many levels. For one, it was Allura’s room and what was going on inside really didn’t concern him. Also, Keith wasn’t his boyfriend, so it wasn’t as though Lance was about to catch him in the act of cheating. Still, Lance carried on.

There, on the floor clutching his foot, was Keith. Not only was it Keith, it was Keith with significantly less clothes than when he had entered the room. He was wearing only his shirt and boxers, nothing else. Lance could deduce that Keith had probably stubbed his toe on the bedframe of the bed in his mad dash to hide himself from Lance, but he didn’t care. It all hit him like a brick and he forced himself to swallow the lump in his throat. He always knew that Keith and Allura were together, who was he kidding. To think that he had actually deluded himself into believing that Keith gave a shit about him. He was on the verge of crying and he had to get out of there as soon as humanly possible.

Lance didn’t wait for anything else to happen. Even as Keith flailed on the floor, trying to stand up and talk to Lance, everything was ignored. He left the room without saying anything to Allura, and he trudged back down the hallway toward his room. After everything that had happened in the day, Lance really wished he had just gone to bed with the delusion that he had a chance with Keith instead of what he was actually doing which was crying himself to sleep. And over a boy, no less. Lance was heartbroken.


	2. How Quickly They Turn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who's ready for some Angst?

“So, any thoughts on who’s gonna join you on this little mission? I’m thinking things might get a little hot, so you’re gonna want someone who can stay cool.” Lance gave a charming wink at Shiro. Keith was right next to him, but Lance just ignored him. It was a little bit immature of Lance to stop hanging out with Keith ever since finding him in Allura’s room a week ago, but Lance just couldn’t bring himself to be near Keith, it would hurt too much and Lance was still recovering. He’d spent enough time crying in Hunk and Pidge’s arms and he needed a break. The Blade of Marmora was some reprise, at least.

Shiro gave him a flat look. “You’re right.” He looked past Lance. “Keith, you’re coming with me.”

Lance blanched. Keith was going? The point was that Lance could get away from Keith for awhile after being trapped with Keith and his own feelings for a week. Keith going on the mission would solve that, but this mission was dangerous. He could die. Any of them could die, really, but Keith was probably the only one on the ship that would be more than ready to get himself killed. If Keith died, Lance wouldn’t know what to do. Even if he couldn’t be with Keith romantically, Keith was still extremely important to him.

“Keith’s a hothead!” Lance angrily yelled at Shiro as if he was an idiot for even suggesting Keith go to the Blade of Marmora. “He’s probably going to shoot first and ask questions later! And they’re not gonna be able to answer his questions _because they’ll be dead!”_

“We haven’t yet severed Zarkon’s link with the Black Lion, so it has to stay here. And the Red Lion can withstand the heat from that sun. So, yes, it’ll be Keith,” Shiro explained as calmly as he could.

Coran spoke up, indicating the screen above them in the bridge where some diagrams were displayed. “The course to the base will be quite treacherous, to say the least. You're walking a razor's edge between the gravitational pull of the black holes and the sun. One false move, and you'll either be crushed into infinity or burnt to a crisp.”

Lance’s heart dropped. Keith and Shiro could die so easily. He was sure everyone on the ship was just as scared and worried as he was, but no one was saying anything. Lance glanced over to the others. His eyes slipped along to Allura, gauging her reaction. She appeared just as stoic as she always did when she led the team and something about that both comforted and bothered Lance. On one hand, she needed to be professional and it did offer reassure to the rest of the team, but on the other hand, Keith was about to fly directly into the middle of two black holes and she should be at least a little concerned for him. Lance narrowed his eyes.

Just as Keith was about to leave with Shiro to the hangar, Lance jogged forward and grabbed his elbow before he, himself, was even aware of what he was doing. Keith, slightly taken aback, turned to him with a confused look. “Uh…” Lance wasn’t even sure what he was planning to say. He awkwardly let go of Keith’s arm. “Just,” Lance cleared his throat, “stay safe,” he finished in a whisper.

Keith raised an eyebrow in surprise before smiling at Lance. It was a small, warm smile and it made Lance’s stomach flip. He didn’t say anything but he did lightly tap Lance on the arm in a gesture of comfort and of promise. With that, Keith turned and left the room, headed for the hangar, never looking back.

It took some time for Keith and Shiro to get out of the Castle in Red and begin heading for the Blade of Marmora. They made it without too much trouble. They were almost pulled into one of the black holes, and Lance had almost had a heart attack, but Keith was a good pilot and got them out of there easily. Once they had landed on the floating asteroid and disappeared inside the rock, they were no longer in sight. Lance should have felt relief that they made it there safely, but they weren’t out of the woods yet and Lance wouldn’t be able to rest easy until Keith and Shiro were standing back in the Castle again.

There was ample time for everyone to do something until the opening for the base closed, but no one wanted to leave the bridge. If they did, it was for food or a bathroom break. Lance was so anxious that he couldn’t even think about eating, but Hunk and Pidge reminded him that it was important he got some sort of energy in his body or else he wouldn’t be able to continue waiting for the others to get back. They brought him some goo and he picked at it.

He got a bit restless after enough time had passed, bouncing his legs and threading his fingers through each other.

“How long has it been?” Allura asked suddenly, voicing what everyone had been thinking.

Coran checked the screen. “Roughly ten vargas.”

“We cannot just wait here.” Lance glared at the floor once he heard Allura speak. He really shouldn’t have been so upset by her, after all, she had every right to be worried about Shiro and Keith, but Lance couldn’t help it.

“The path is closed for, like, I don’t know, thirty more vargas or something?” Lance estimated. He just wanted to drown out Allura.

Coran clicked some more things. “That’s actually correct,” he said, surprised.

Hunk, who was stood next to Lance, turned to Coran with an equally surprised expression. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Lance leaned back and used his arms as a makeshift headrest, “I wasn’t born yester-quintant!”

Allura ignored him. “I have to know what’s going on down there.” Her voice was laced with deep concern.

Pidge glanced up from the computer in her lap. She adjusted her glasses briefly. “There's no way to get a read on their base. Too much interference from the solar flares and the black holes,” she informed them.

Hunk thought for a moment. “If we account for the gravitational lensing, maybe we can reduce the noise and interference, and connect with the Red Lion's sensors, right?” He looked at Lance, gesturing with his hands. “Th-That's right, right?”

“Are you looking at me?” Lance pointed to himself in confusion.

Coran answered for Lance, “We can give it a try.”

Allura’s face steeled. “Get on it.” Lance agreed that they should get on with it too, but he couldn’t help but feel the irritation and panic rise in him as she spoke.

Coran adjusted some more things on the hologram, checking and trying anything that might work. Lance couldn’t understand what anything on the screen meant. Partly because it was all in Altean and partly because he just didn’t get that kind of stuff. It was more in Pidge and Hunk’s realm, not his.

As Lance stood and made his way to his assigned chair, his mind started to wander. He thought of the entire situation they were in at that moment and how dangerous it was. He thought of Keith. What if Keith never returned? Lance was sure that Keith would be fine, but he couldn’t help but be filled with worry. He had been avoiding Keith for an entire week and he knew that Keith was starting to notice. Every time Keith would come jogging up to him in the hallway to invite him to train or just to hang out, Lance would decline. The crestfallen look that Keith always tried to hide when Lance shut him down would break Lance’s heart, but he knew that if he got too close, then he would just let his feelings get in the way and ruin anything he had with Keith. It could even ruin Keith and Allura’s relationship, and Lance couldn’t do that.

Lance wasn’t sure how long they spent waiting for Coran to connect to the Red Lion, but finally he did.

“The Red Lion is moving!” Allura yelled.

Lance was pulled from his thoughts violently and he instantly looked to the screen above him. “We gotta get down there!” Lance yelled.

“It won’t be ready for five more minutes,” Hunk informed him. Lance twitched his hands, never taking his eyes off the screen.

The Castle started beeping loudly, startling everyone. “The Red Lion has started attacking!” Coran shouted.

On the screen, the Red Lion could be seen shaking and shooting the asteroid, attempting to get inside. “Wait, what does that mean?” Hunk asked nervously. “Why would the lion attack? Unless…” His voice took on a note of dread as he let his sentence taper off.

Lance’s blood turned to ice and his heart dropped into his stomach. His throat felt clogged and he almost couldn’t breathe. There was no way. Lance glanced to their leader and he saw a look of devastation. “Allura?” His voice was weak and scared.

Allura’s face hardened and she stared at the ground for a moment before glaring at the screen again. “Everyone, stay focused,” she called out. “Coran, how much longer until we can get in?”

“Just a few more ticks, Princess!” Coran tried sounding calm but it came out more frantic as he watched the Red Lion.

“Get ready!” Allura warned. Lance did get ready. They were going to get Keith and Shiro back.

Coran began the countdown. “Five…” Lance’s heart was beating. “Four… Three…” Lance scooted forward in his chair to get a better look. “Two…” His eyes searched the sky wildly. “One…” Everyone waited.

Suddenly, Shiro’s voice rang through the bridge speakers, “Princess, we’re coming back, and we’re bringing someone you should meet.” Lance sighed in relief, slumping down in his chair.

“They’re alright!” Coran cheered.

Pidge laughed, “Yes, they did it!”

The Red Lion flew into the hangar of the Castle. Everyone in the bridge raced to the hangar door to meet them. Lance was the first one there and he thanked his long legs as well as his worry for Keith. As soon as the lion opened up, a tall person with a Blade of Marmora outfit stepped out, followed by Shiro and then Keith. Lance could feel his entire body deflate with reprieve when he saw Keith’s mop of black hair, but it was suddenly replaced with worry again when he saw the state Keith was in.

There were cuts and bruises on his exhausted, half-awake face. A large gash was sliced into his right shoulder. There was an enormous stain of blood sticking the black fabric of his outfit to his wound and Lance only hoped it had clogged up enough to stop bleeding. His entire body in general was covered in bloody cuts, tears, snags, and other various wounds. Some of his hair was slicked along his neck with blood and his arms hung loosely at his sides. In one hand, Lance could see the knife that Keith always kept sheathed on his back, but it wasn’t covered in blood, thankfully.

Keith’s shoulders were slumped and his back was slightly hunched. Lance had never seen Keith looking so dead. As he walked down the ramp of the Red Lion, Lance noticed he was moving with a limp. It took everything within him to not sprint up the rest of the way to meet him and help him. His hand flexed at his sides. Anger surged through Lance. Who did that do him? How could Shiro let this happen? Lance knew Keith was going to get himself killed.

Once the three had met them on the Castle hangar floor, Lance expected Allura to hurry toward Keith and make sure he was alright, hug him, kiss him, something. But she didn’t. She merely glanced at him, furrowed her eyebrows in a look of concern, and then addressed the Blade member. That, once again, bubbled resentment inside Lance. Diplomacy was important, but while Keith was swaying, seconds from passing out?

The Blade member removed his mask. “Princess Allura, it’s good to see that the rumours are true. You’re still alive after all these years.”

“So is Zarkon,” Allura said. Her expression was tight as she glared at him. It was because he was Galra, Lance knew. Whether they were helping or not didn’t matter because of that. “Can we consider you our ally in the fight against him?”

The Blade member nodded. “Yes, but we have little time to discuss this.” His voice turned darker. “I just received word from our spy inside the Galran hierarchy. They have become aware of our presence, so the timetable for our plan has been moved up.”

At that point, Lance stopped listening. He had held off for long enough. As quietly as he could, Lance stepped around all the others until he was stood next to Keith. Gently, Lance placed his hand on the boy’s uninjured shoulder, but he drew it back quickly when Keith stared up at him with fear and panic. Keith moved his foot back as if he was about to make a break for it.

“Keith,” Lance whispered, trying not to draw attention to the two of them. He flicked his head toward the hallway. Keith glanced between Lance and the direction he had indicated before nodding lightly. Smiling as comfortingly as he could, Lance slid his hand into Keith’s – the one without the knife – and dragged him away from the rest of the group. Out of the corner of his eye, Lance could see Pidge and Hunk watching them leave. Sure, it was a little bit self-indulgent of him to hold Keith’s hand while he was weakened and Allura was distracted, but friends could hold hands too. He just wanted to help patch Keith up anyways.

Once they were out of earshot of the others, Lance let up on his pulling but he didn’t let go of Keith’s hand. “What happened?” Lance asked Keith. He couldn’t keep the genuine fear out of his voice. “Are you okay? What did they do to you?” They made their way toward the med bay as Lance led them.

Keith didn’t answer for a moment. “Lance…” He almost couldn’t be heard, even in the empty hallway. His whisper was so soft and broken; it tore at Lance’s heart and he halted right in front of the med bay door. Lance waited for Keith to answer, but he didn’t. Instead of responding to Lance’s questions, he hung his head and whispered again, “I’m Galra…”

Lance froze. He didn’t know what to say to that. Keith was Galra? How did he know? “What do you mean?” Lance whispered back. His hand unconsciously squeezed Keith’s hand and he took a step closer.

The audible sound of Keith swallowing echoed through the hall and he didn’t raise his head to look at Lance. Another shaky whisper, “I have Galra blood…” There was a soft, white light from Keith’s other hand and Lance gazed at it. He watched as Keith’s knife transformed in his hand until it matched the weapon that the other Blade of Marmora members carried. The point of the blade just barely skimmed the ground.

Lance stared at the blade for a moment, in shock. Then he glanced at Keith again. His face was still to the ground with his bangs hanging down to cover his expression. It hit Lance suddenly that there was no time for that discussion. Keith was injured and he needed to get into the healing pod. Galra blood or not, Keith was still Keith and he still bled red.

Lance shook his head and gently lifted his other hand to Keith’s neck. He caressed his fingers over Keith’s skin until he found the boy’s chin, then he softly lifted Keith’s head until they were eye-to-eye. It caught Lance off guard to stare so deeply into those purple eyes. There was such vulnerability in Keith’s expression, as if he was waiting for Lance to reject him.

“That doesn’t matter,” lowly, yet determinedly, Lance answered. “We need to get you into the healing pod, okay?” Keith’s eyes widened slightly as he realized that Lance wasn’t going to tear him apart. Fingers tightened around Lance’s hand as Keith nodded numbly. Lance smiled and opened the med bay door, leading Keith. “Can you get out of that suit?” It was a shame the suit was so bloodied because it was a very nice outfit and it looked incredible on Keith. There was no time to think about that though. He let Keith’s hand go so he could find a healing pod suit.

Keith just stood there, scrutinizing the bloodied gash in his shoulder. After Lance had picked out a suit, he turned back to see Keith gingerly pulling the fabric away from his skin. He grimaced as it leveraged his wound open, the caked-on blood acting as a glue. “Could you help me? My shoulder…” Keith stared helplessly at Lance, who set the healing pod suit on the steps and hurried over to help him.

The defeated expression that seemed permanently engraved on Keith’s face shook Lance. Ever since Lance had first seen Keith, the only expressions he ever saw the boy make were ones of someone who was completely confident in himself and knew exactly what to do without anyone’s help. The boy in front of Lance at that moment was a tired, destroyed kid, and it hurt Lance to see Keith that way.

Lance undid the clasp on the back of Keith’s suit, trying to ignore the heat that was rising in his cheeks. He was sure that if Keith hadn’t been so shattered, then he would have heard the intense beating of Lance’s heart. As slowly as he could, Lance slid his hand under the fabric at Keith’s shoulder, chipping the dried blood off his skin with his nails and gauging the reactions Keith made. Heat radiated off Keith’s body and it felt nice along Lance’s fingers. Black hair tickled Lance’s wrist but he tried to ignore that. He was helping Keith, nothing else. Keith faced straight ahead, placing all his trust into Lance.

As soon as Lance’s fingernail grazed across the opening of the wound, Keith flinched, but he didn’t say anything. Lance skirted around the wound, removing the outfit. He slid the suit off Keith’s shoulder as he worked until the entire section of the outfit slipped off. Keith’s bare shoulder blade was even more pale than his usual complexion when compared to the black suit and to the crimson plastered over him. His muscles were visible and Lance swallowed, shaking his head and berating himself for even thinking that way while Keith was injured.

It wasn’t necessary, but Lance helped Keith pull the rest of the suit down his body until he was just standing there in his boxers. Keith’s bare chest and limbs were covered in many more cuts and bruises than Lance was expecting them to be and he grimaced at the injuries. Hoping to get Keith into the pod as quickly as he could, Lance retrieved the healing pod suit and knelt next to the boy, positioning it so Keith could step in. A hand pressed into Lance’s shoulder for balance while Keith began putting the outfit on. The entire time, Keith kept flinching and jerking away in pain, but he never complained.

Lance was careful as he stretched the shoulder of the fabric over Keith’s injury. Then he did up the new suit and guided Keith by the hand to the healing pod. Lance had helped out Coran many times and they were good friends, so he understood how the healing pods worked. He couldn’t exactly read the Altean words, but he had memorized what everything did and knew what to press. After setting the pod up, Lance glanced back to Keith, who was eyeing him with a dazed, far-off look. He lifted Keith’s hand, which he was still holding, to assist him while he stepped into the pod. Their hands let go once Keith was inside.

Right as he was about to close up the healing pod, Keith quickly tried to say one last thing, “Lance, will you be here…?” The look of vulnerability was back on Keith’s face again.

Lance smiled tenderly – perhaps too tenderly for someone who was just comforting their friend. “I’ll be here when you get out,” he answered softly. Then, before Lance did something ridiculous and overzealous like kiss the boy, he programmed the healing pod and stepped back to watch it close. He stared at Keith’s pained face behind the glass for a moment longer, then he sighed and made his way back toward the last place he had seen the rest of the team.

Everyone had moved into the bridge of the ship, however, and were staring at something on the holographic screen. Lance quickly joined them again, slipping in to stand at Pidge’s side. Only Pidge and Hunk noticed his arrival. There was a short tug on his sleeve, causing him to glance over to his friends.

“Where’s Keith?” Pidge whispered, gripping Lance's jacket sleeve.

“Healing pod,” Lance muttered back.

Hunk leaned over Pidge a bit so Lance could hear him. “Is he okay?”

“He will be,” Lance mumbled, almost mournfully. Hunk and Pidge both nodded at his answer before returning their attention to the others.

The Blade member was just finishing up the planning with Allura, Shiro, and Coran. He was leaving to return to the base, taking one of the escape pods since they would be moving between the two places for a little while. After he had left, Shiro turned serious and glanced among all the other members of the team. Lance had a feeling he knew what Shiro was thinking. He was proven right when Shiro cleared his throat, pulling the attention of everyone.

“While we were there, Keith learned some things about himself and…” Shiro seemed to have a permanent crease in his forehead as he furrowed his eyebrows and took a moment to think his words through. Pidge and Hunk looked interested while Coran just looked confused and Allura looked worried. “Keith wanted me to tell you all.” Lance found himself watching Allura out of the corner of his eyes to gauge her reaction once again.

“Keith is Galra.” There it was. Allura’s eyes widened to their full capacity and she was shell shocked. Everyone else seemed to be in similar states. Hunk put a hand to his mouth and even Shiro seemed taken aback by admitting it out loud. Silence dragged on.

“That…” Allura’s voice broke through the silence. “That can’t be…” She took a step back.

“Allura…” Coran moved to put a hand on her shoulder, hoping to comfort her, but she jerked back.

“No!” she yelled. Everyone turned to stare at her, still in varying states of disbelief. “I trusted him!” She whirled around to face Shiro as if this was all his fault. “He lied to me!”

Shiro’s face displayed a look of disbelief, but rather than it being because of Keith, it was directed at Allura’s behaviour. “He didn’t know,” Shiro said in a low, challenging voice.

Allura wasn’t listening. Her eyes were practically bulging out of her head. “I can’t believe I– We–” Her hysterics quickly changed to complete disgust. “Oh, _quiznak!_ ”

Lance could feel fresh anger boiling within him as he listened to Allura screaming about Keith the way she was. He stepped toward her. “He’s still Keith!” he yelled at her. Coran tried to separate the two of them but Lance was far too furious to notice.

“His kind took my entire planet away.” There was a wild look in her eye as she advanced on Lance, only to be held back by Coran again.

At that point, Shiro started to intervene, attempting to calm the princess down, “Okay, you both need to–”

Something in Lance snapped. “His kind?!” Lance screamed. “He’s the red paladin, he’s on our side, he’s our _family!_ ” Lance was just as hysterical as Allura had been. Pidge and Hunk were suddenly pulling Lance back by the shoulders.

“Maybe we should all calm down?” Hunk suggested, nervously glancing between the two.

Allura ignored him. “We face such a dire threat from the Galra. I know all too well how quickly they turn.” Allura was practically in his face, still speaking evenly with her powerful voice, although it radiated anger.

“Are you fucking kidding me?! Can you even hear yourself?!” Lance wasn’t usually one for hitting people but Allura was getting him close to crossing that line. “He was in your room, practically naked, just the other night, and you’re going to act like you’re so much better than him now?!” It was a low blow to bring up their relationship but Allura really didn’t deserve Keith, he was seeing that now.

A darkness that Lance didn’t even know Allura could possess suddenly overtook her entire face, and if Coran and Shiro didn’t pull her away at the same time that Pidge and Hunk pulled him away, then Lance was sure Allura would have hit him.

“That’s _enough!_ Both of you!” Shiro shouted. He sounded serious so Lance complied, shrinking back. “We’re all… surprised and we all need time to process things but–”

“Process what?” Lance interrupted, riding on his adrenaline high.

Shiro glared at him. “Lance, stand down,” he hissed.

“It’s not like you’re going to kick him out of Voltron over something so insignificant!” Lance spat.

“It shouldn’t be ruled out.” Allura said, calmly and flatly, without a hint of emotion.

The grip his best friends had on him wasn’t strong enough and Lance yanked himself away, advancing on her again, fully prepared to turn the fight physical. “ _How dare you?!”_ Lance shrieked. Her eyes widened a bit, not expecting Lance to come at her so readily, but then Lance was being pulled off the floor. His feet flailed over the ground and his arms were sandwiched to his side. Hunk was holding him so that he couldn’t get any closer. Lance was so frantic at that point that he thrashed as best he could even though he knew fully well that Hunk’s hold on him wasn’t going to release. He was screeching, he knew that. The noises he made were just that; noises. They weren’t words.

“We’ll deal with this tomorrow,” Shiro directed, pointing to the door.

Hunk carried him back and into the hallway. Lance could vaguely here Pidge speaking to the others, “We’ll take him.” She sounded weak but Lance was too busy with his own fighting. He was contained within Hunk’s arms the entire way down the hall until they reached Lance’s bedroom. Setting Lance back down, Hunk finally let go. By that time, Lance had let all his anger run its course and all he felt was a deep fatigue as well as a sadness. He collapsed against Hunk’s chest, breaking out into sobs. Hunk just hugged him. A moment later, Pidge joined them and they both made room for her.

“You don’t think she’ll really find a new red paladin, do you?” he whispered into Hunk’s shoulder.

“I don’t think she can afford to at this point,” Hunk answered. His tone wasn’t the same jovial and lighthearted one he usually used.

Lance sighed. “That’s not reassuring,” he muttered.

“You were pretty hard on her back there, Lance.” Pidge removed her face from both of their chests so she could be heard more easily.

“You too? Didn’t you hear what she was saying about Keith?” Lance pulled away from the hug slightly, feeling trapped suddenly.

Pidge met his eyes with a pleading stare before turning her gaze to the ground again. “The Galra… they took my family from me, Lance,” she confessed to the floor. “I have to find them…”

Lance knew all about that situation and he instantly felt a twinge of regret in his chest. Not enough to make him change his stance, but he wasn’t about to attack her like he was with Allura. “But Keith isn’t like that, Pidge, you know that,” he said quietly with an urging lilt.

She sighed, slumping her shoulders and raising her head to meet Lance’s eye again. “I know. Being Galra doesn’t change who he is.” She was nodding as she spoke. “I’ll still need some time to take it all in, though,” her words tapered off with a slight sadness. She hugged them both more tightly.

“Keith is still Keith, and we’ll be there for him too, Lance. Don’t worry.” Hunk gave a warm smile to Lance.

Lance nodded slowly, then returned the hug just as vehemently. “Thanks, guys.”

Once they were all done hugging, each of them made their way to their respective rooms to try sleeping off the events of the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Allura, trust me.


	3. You're Forgiven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keith has awoken.

Keith’s shoulder wound was about the only major injury that Keith had sustained at the Blade of Marmora, other than the various cuts and bruises, as well as Keith’s exhaustion. Thankfully, that meant that Keith was out of the healing pod after only a day. It was still the longest day of Lance’s life, however, not only because he was ridiculously worried about Keith, but also because Allura was avoiding him like the plague unless she had to be around him, in which case she would glare.

Everyone else on the ship had come to accept that Keith was Galra to even the barest extent. Hunk seemed to be a little afraid to stand too close to Keith’s pod as if Keith was going to attack him, but otherwise, he was ready to welcome the red paladin back. Pidge had taken some time to really think about her family and the Galra, which made Lance worried, but eventually she thought back to all the times Lance had tried to initiate the Voltron chant and Keith just couldn’t get it right. That made her laugh and also reminded her that Keith was just an awkward kid from Earth like the rest of them.

Shiro had accepted it fairly easily since he had grown up with Keith. They were brothers and Shiro knew that he was all Keith had had for a family. That thought was more than enough for Shiro, even after everything that had happened on Kerberos. Coran, although he had lost his entire planet to the Galra, understood that it wasn’t Keith’s fault he had the blood he did and that he was still on their side. He acted much more mature about that Allura but he still had a strange look in his eye when he checked the pod. Lance thought it might have been pity, but he wasn’t sure.

Finally, when Keith exited the pod, Lance had been there, just as he had promised. The boy tumbled forward from the cryopod and Lance caught him before he could hit the floor. He was heavier than Lance was expecting and his falling momentum almost brought them both to the ground, but Lance steadied them. Keith stirred, gripping Lance’s upper arms to hold himself up. He stared at Lance with a confused and dazed expression before realizing where he was and what was going on.

“Hey, Sleeping Beauty. Finally awake?” Lance grinned down at the boy in his arms.

Keith furrowed his eyebrows but there was a light pink tint to his cheeks. “How long was I out?” he asked.

“Only a day. You should still eat and then rest, though.” For a moment, Lance almost reached a hand up to tuck some of Keith’s hair behind his ear and out of his face, then he remembered that Keith isn’t his and that would be crossing some sort of boundary.

Nodding in agreement, Keith stood up properly, letting go of his hold on Lance’s arms. Lance wished he hadn’t done that as he missed the warmth. They both made their way out of the med bay, down the hall, and into the kitchen. Keith didn’t say anything the entire time, he just walked alongside Lance close enough that their shoulders occasionally brushed. In the kitchen, Keith sat down at the little island stool and stared at Lance expectantly. Grabbing two plates, Lance served up some food goo and slid one of the plates across the island to rest in front of Keith. He gave him a spoon as well then settled into the seat next to Keith with his own meal. Lance wasn’t all that hungry, but he figured it would be weird if Keith was the only one eating.

Keith slowly picked at his food, barely eating half of it. His eyes never left the plate. Eventually, he muttered, “You really don’t mind that I’m Galra?”

Lance stopped chewing and glanced over at Keith. “No, of course not.” He smiled. “Don’t think just because you have badass alien blood that you’re not my rival anymore! I’m still going to best you yet, Keith!” Lance was trying to lighten the mood and hopefully help Keith relax around him. He wanted Keith to trust him and know that Lance didn’t see him any different due to something so trivial.

It worked, Keith laughed. Well, more like he huffed some air out of his nose while smiling, but Lance would take it. He lifted his head and stared at Lance with a hint of fondness in his eyes. There was a soft smile along his face. “I’d like to see you try,” he laughed.

“Bring it on then!” Lance challenged. It was nice to just sit and talk to Keith the way they were. Keith was a very active guy and he was all about training so it wasn’t too often that Lance had the chance to just sit beside him and talk alone.

Keith’s smiling face suddenly dropped off into one of panic. “Has Shiro told the others?” he asked.

“Yeah.” Keith looked like he was about to flee so Lance quickly tried to reassure him. “But don’t worry! Everyone is cool with it! Sort of…” He held up his hands in hopes to attempt Keith. Nodding, Keith relaxed back into his seat with a smile at his face. “Well…” Lance dropped his eyes.

“Well? Well, what?” Keith was suddenly even more frantic. He turned on his stool to better face the other. “Lance?”

Lance stared at Keith, debating whether or not to tell him. “Allura… She kind of…” He didn’t really know where he was going with that. All the colour from Keith’s face drained. He stared at Lance in pure fear. Lance wanted to say something but he wasn’t sure what would help in that moment. It made Lance angry at Allura all over again for causing Keith to be so devastated. “Keith…” Lance reached a hand out, hovering it between them for a moment, unsure of what to do with it. Keith just shook his head. “She’s still letting you be the red paladin, though.” He immediately regretted saying that.

“Oh, god,” he groaned. Keith’s expression was pained as he dropped his head into his hands, covering his face. “She hates me.” His voice was muffled by his hands.

“No! No, she doesn’t hate you!” Lance hurriedly assured. “She just needs some time.” The words felt sickly on his tongue, like he was lying or like he was defending someone who didn’t deserve it, which he was. Keith shook his head in his hands some more. “You still have the rest of us.” He wanted to hug Keith, but it didn’t seem like it would be welcome.

Keith finally took a deep breath and looked up from his hands to face Lance. He seemed to be searching for something in Lance’s eyes. Whether he found it or not, Lance couldn’t tell, but he nodded. “Thank you,” Keith muttered.

Lance offered him a shaky smile and held out his hand despite knowing that Keith didn’t need his help anymore. “You should rest though,” Lance suggested. Surprisingly, Keith took the hand in his and stood from his chair, following Lance out of the kitchen and down the hallway. Their hands stayed clasped together until they reached Keith’s room and Lance could almost delude himself into believing that he and Keith were more than friends.

Letting go of Lance’s hand, Keith opened his door. Before he entered, he turned to meet Lance’s eye. It seemed like he wanted to say something but instead he just smiled then disappeared into the room.

Lance stood outside for a moment. Then he sighed and headed back to the kitchen to clean the plates they had both left behind. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to do for the rest of the day, so he just did some shooting practice to clear his head. That was a very Keith thing to do, he realized; training as therapy. Lance did it anyway. Keith never left his room and by the time Lance got around to joining the others for dinner, Allura was surprised that Keith was out of the pod at all. That meant that she hadn’t checked on him once since he had been in the pod. If she had, she would have seen the countdown and known when he would get out. Everyone else knew he was out, even though Keith hadn’t talked to any of them yet.

Dinner was very tense as everyone glanced at all the other people at the table. Keith was the only one missing but Allura still glared. Most of the glaring was at Lance though. If she tried to start anything, Lance was more than ready to defend his and Keith’s honour. Fortunately, she stayed quiet. Lance ate as fast as he could since he wanted to leave immediately, but it still felt like dinner had lasted twice as long as normal. Perhaps it was the decreased amount of conversation. Shiro and Hunk still tried to stir up some sort of exchange, but only Coran and Pidge humoured them.

The chair scraped along the ground when Lance pushed it back. Everyone turned their attention to him but no one said anything, they just watched him go. Lance took his plate to the kitchen. He felt very drained from all the glaring and staring at dinner so rather than returning to training, Lance just went to his room. It was still early and he wasn’t tired, but Lance could just sit there and wait until he did get tired.

At one point or another, Lance fell asleep. It wasn’t a deep sleep, just light drifting. Maybe he was more tired than he had thought because it came and went quickly. Eventually, Lance woke with a start. He hadn’t dreamt anything, but he was shaken anyway. Staring around the room and rubbing at his bleary eyes, he glanced over to the alarm clock that he had had Pidge set up in his room. It ran on Earth time and it displayed 2:14 A.M. Lance sighed. He’d slept for a long time and now he wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep for a while.

He kicked his legs off the bed and sat up. Everything felt uncomfortable since he hadn’t changed out of his clothes or done his nightly face mask. Lance stretched his arms above his head and then out in front of him. A yawn escaped him. Once he relaxed all his muscles again, Lance just sat there and scanned the room. He decided that rather than trying to fall asleep again, Lance left the room. Sometimes when he was feeling down or he couldn’t sleep, he would go sit in the observatory and watch the stars outside. It wasn’t nearly as comforting when he was surrounded by space all the time like it had been on Earth, looking up from his bedroom window, but it was better than nothing.

Quietly as Lance could, he meandered down the hall and into the observatory. Outside the window, Lance could see a scattering of blues and purples sprinkling through the sky before fading through pink and bleeding along the sky in deep red. Large collections of dust and explosions melding together. Sifting amongst the other colours and mixing to create new ones, sparkling overhead. Lance still got the overwhelming feeling of amazement when he stared out across the atmosphere, and he loved it.

As he was about to sit down in front of the window, he was alerted to another person in the room when his eye caught onto a huddle of red in the corner. He looked over. Keith was hugging his knees to his chest and resting his chin on top of them. He was back in his regular outfit, cropped jacket and all. His hair was covering his face but Lance was sure that if he checked, he wouldn’t find a smile on Keith’s face. Hesitantly, Lance approached the curled boy.

Without saying a word, Lance settled down onto the floor with enough room between him and Keith that he could comfort him but also so that Keith didn’t feel overcrowded. He crossed his legs and rested his hands neatly on his ankles. They sat comfortably in silence together for a while, just watching the stars. Then, unprompted, Keith began speaking.

“I talked to everyone today. They’re all coming around. Except Allura,” he muttered. Lance shifted a bit to better look to Keith. “She…” he paused, “wasn’t in a talking mood, I guess.”

Lance furrowed his eyebrows. “What did she say?” he asked.

Keith sighed deeply, “Something about my help only being a trap. I think she referred to me as ‘one of them’ in there, I don’t know.” Everything about his voice sounded hurt and worn out.

Irritation bubbled inside Lance, directed toward Allura again. “How can she say that?” Lance murmured through gritted teeth.

Keith unhooked his arms around his knees and used them to scooch himself closer to Lance. His knees curled up again and he returned his chin to its place. Lance’s knee was pressed up against Keith’s calf and his heartrate picked up. He wanted so badly to collect Keith in his arms and hug him until all their problems dissipated. He wanted to kiss Keith and erase the frown he was wearing. Keith didn’t need Allura, especially when she was shutting him out, he needed someone who would love him and Lance could be that person, would be that person if Keith let him.

“Everything was so good,” Keith mumbled into his knees. “We were good.” Lance watched as Keith’s eyes gently closed. “I really trusted her. I didn’t think she would react like _this_.” Keith let his body droop, softly falling against Lance. His head nudged its way into the crevice of Lance’s neck. Lance was trying really hard to listen to Keith but his heart was so loud in his ears. Slowly, Lance lifted his arm up to wrap it around Keith’s back, resting his hand on Keith’s arm. “What if she doesn’t want to go back to how we were? I really like her, Lance, I don’t want this to ruin our relationship.”

Ice shot through Lance’s body. Keith still loved her. After everything that Allura had said and done regarding Keith and he still loved her. The only reason that Keith was leaning against Lance in that moment was because they were friends and Keith needed a shoulder to cry on, not because he wanted Lance specifically. Lance swallowed thickly and he tried to pretend that there weren’t tears welling in his eyes. Instead of using his voice, which he was sure would break if he used it, Lance rubbed his hand up and down Keith’s arm, massaging him and offering him comfort.

“You’re a good person, Lance.” It was barely a whisper and Lance was almost sure that he had only imagined hearing it. “You just accepted me without question.” Keith turned his head to mutter his next words into Lance’s shoulder, “Thank you.”

Lance’s heart was going a mile a minute. He felt a tear roll down his cheek and he reached the hand that wasn’t around Keith up to wipe it away before the boy beside him noticed. Keith just said things like that as if the words weren’t rebuilding then shattering Lance’s heart. He said them as someone who truly trusted their friend without question. If that was all Lance could have, then he was happy he had it, but he still longed for more.

In a moment of weakness, Lance tilted his head over and kissed the top of Keith’s head through his unruly hair. That was something friends could do, right? And they were friends, yeah? Keith didn’t say anything but he did let out a low, pleased hum, which set Lance’s heart on fire again. They stayed there, staring at the stars until Keith fell asleep in Lance’s arms.

 

◊ ◊ ◊

 

The next day, Keith decided that he wanted to go breakfast with everyone else and he was going to join training time. Lance agreed to Keith’s request that Lance stay close to him at the table since he would be seeing the rest of the team for the first time since the Blade of Marmora aside from Allura, who didn’t exactly want to talk to him anyways. All Lance could do was hope that everyone had completely gotten used to Keith’s title of Galra and wouldn’t be too weird around him.

They weren’t the first ones to the table. Once they had collected their plates of food goo, they sat down in their usual spots with Hunk sitting across from Lance. He smiled brightly when the other two paladins sat down at the table.

“Good morning!” Hunk greeted cheerfully.

Next to Lance, Keith looked hesitant as he sat down. “Hey, Hunk!” Lance answered, hoping to signal to Keith that it was okay.

“Hi,” Keith answered.

“Are you feeling better today, Keith? You disappeared yesterday and we were all worried about you,” Hunk informed. He was speaking cheerfully, but his eyes were studying Keith’s skin, as if looking for differences in the pigmentation.

Keith seemed to notice by the twitch in his eyebrows and he nodded and stared down at his goo. “Yeah, I’m good.”

At that moment, Pidge and Coran entered the dining room with plates of food.

“Hey! It’s Keith!” Pidge called, setting her food down next to Hunk and seating herself. She was smiling brightly at the boy across from her and Lance felt a surge of alleviation at the fact that Pidge had come around. Maybe she was a little bit too excited to see Keith, but it was probably because he was in the healing pod and had been MIA for an entire two days, also a bit of overcompensation from every doubting his loyalty in the first place. Her smile was almost too wide.

“Hey, Pidge,” Keith gave a small smile.

Coran sat down next to the head of the table where Allura would sit, on the other side of Pidge. “How’s your shoulder, number four? You were pretty roughed up when you got here.” He twirled his moustache from across the table and seemed to be scrutinizing Keith’s shoulder. There was hesitation in his voice.

Rolling his shoulders, Keith gave another half-smile to the man. “Yeah, the healing pod did its job well,” he answered. Lance could tell he was trying his best to sound normal but there was an uneasiness to him in the way he moved, responded, and the tone of his voice.

“That’s wonderful to hear!” Coran smiled back. It was a genuine smile and Lance was glad that everything was going so well. No one was saying anything about Keith’s heritage and they were all making sure Keith knew that he was still a part of the team, maybe even unnaturally so.

Shiro entered the room at that moment, his eyes widening in surprise when he saw Keith. He smiled though. “Keith, you’ve decided to join us!” he laughed as he seated himself next to the boy. “Are you going to be in training too?” He affectionately messed up Keith’s hair.

Swatting Shiro’s hand away, Keith laughed. Lance was pleased to hear that it was a full laugh, no hint of awkwardness in it. Shiro also didn’t seem to be bothered by Keith. It was the same brother bond that he had always had with Keith. Perhaps it was more teasing because Keith needed to know that he was still loved, but nonetheless, Shiro had accepted the fact that Keith had Galran blood.

“You have a cowlick!” Pidge crowed, dissolving into laughter. Keith was too busy laughing to give her a proper dirty look, but he tried.

“It makes you look like an anime character,” Hunk snickered.

Keith was trying to pat it down with his gloved hands but he couldn’t, for the life of him, find it. Lance laughed and pulled Keith’s hands away before he ruined it. “No, leave it!”

Keith glared at him. “Lance!”

“It looks cute!” It slipped out before Lance could stop himself and Keith stopped struggling for a second, his cheeks flaring red. He stared wide eyed at Lance, who was staring wide eyed and red faced right back.

“It isn’t a bad look for you, if I do say so myself!” Coran agreed, attempting to join in on the lightened mood of the room.

The other team members at the table were all laughing good-naturedly.

A pair of footsteps alerted everyone to someone else entering the room and they each turned to watch Allura as she made her way to her spot at the head of the table. She didn’t speak. All the laughter died down significantly by the time she had seated herself. The first person she looked to was Keith. She glared as though he had personally wronged her, then turned her attention back to her food.

“Where were you yesterday?” she asked. Her tone was trying to be cold and flat but there was a tinge of concern there. She didn’t even bother to address anyone else at the table.

Lance squinted at her out of anger then turned back to Keith. He looked confused for a moment but it was obvious she was only referring to him. “Recovering,” he answered tightly.

“You’re not proving yourself by leaving everything to the rest of the team.” It sounded like she was trying to keep her voice level as she scooped up some food on her but there was a bite to her words, almost frustrated with Keith. Everyone at the table looked uncomfortable.

Keith scrunched his face up into one of disgust and Lance mirrored it. “Prove myself?” Keith snapped. Lance was fully ready to jump up and defend Keith at any moment even though he knew that Keith could do that himself.

Allura stared him down. “You should have been training,” she said, as if it were obvious. Lance wanted to go off on her.

Keith looked completely confused and slightly appalled. “I train every day.”

“Which is why I’m confused as to why you took a day off.” Allura returned to her food. Pidge shifted awkwardly in her seat and ate some more goo. Hunk copied her. Neither of them made eye contact with Allura or Keith.

Keith was quiet for a moment, just glaring. Then he took a deep breath. “Okay, fine,” he sighed finally. “I’m sorry.” Keith was about to start eating again but before he was able, Allura spoke again.

“It’s not me you should be apologizing to,” It was the same patronizing tone that Lance had heard his mother use so many times when he did something stupid and needed to learn something from it, “it’s your fellow paladins who had to pick up the slack.” Keith held his spoon halfway to his mouth, glaring at her with angry disbelief. She waited a moment. “Go on.” Gesturing to everyone, she urged him. It sounded as if she were trying to keep herself in check.

Lance couldn’t take that. That was far too much. He put his hand on Keith’s elbow before the boy could do anything. “Keith, you don’t have to do that,” he hissed under his breath. Keith stared into his eyes with surprise.

“Yes, he does,” Allura called, voice hard and commanding. It made Lance wonder what she was really making Keith apologize for.

Furious, Lance turned to her again. Perhaps he shouldn’t have been picking so many fights with her but she was going too far. She was treating him like a child or a dog and that was something that Lance wouldn’t stand for. He slammed his hand onto the table, leaning across it, and everyone jumped. “Keith trains more than anyone on this ship. Including you.”

Her expression darkened but neither of them said anything because Keith was gripping his upper arm and yanking him back into his seat. “Lance, it’s fine.”

Lance stared at him with dread and panic. “Keith–” he was interrupted.

“Lance.” The nails in Lance’s arm dug in deeper as a warning. Lance relaxed into the chair again, never taking his eyes off Keith, silently willing Keith to do anything except concede. Keith sighed and turned back to address everyone at the table. “I’m sorry I wasn’t at training yesterday.” He sounded almost like he meant it.

Allura made a huffy noise, but her voice was softer, “You’re forgiven.” Keith scowled at her with such betrayal that Lance had to look away so it didn’t hurt him as much. The rest of breakfast was generally silent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, Allura. That's not how you make friends.


	4. It Doesn't Have to Mean Anything

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think it's time for Lance to be really happy only to be yanked back down into reality by that cold, hard, Langst.  
> (It's really not that bad)

Lance couldn’t believe that Allura would actually say those things, but there was nothing he could do, and Keith had just let it happen. The rest of the day wasn’t nearly as awkward as that breakfast was though, which was an improvement to some extent. Allura had addressed them all as a team and had treated Keith the way she always did. She would never talk to him directly and she wouldn’t look at him without glaring, but she didn’t say anything.

The day was longer than it should have been. Most days were long and grueling because of all the fighting they had to endure and survive through, but that day, it was because of the tense and irritation radiating off Allura whenever Keith was in her field of view. When Lance finally got back to his room that night, he was sure he could have fallen asleep the moment his head hit the pillow. That would mean skipping his face mask and sleeping in his clothes though, which he had done one too many times that week.

Everyone else was already in their rooms also getting ready for bed so when Lance got up to go do his nightly routine, he wasn’t expecting a knock at his door. He paused for a moment, debating whether or not he should just pretend he was asleep, but ultimately, he decided against that and opened the door. Lance was very glad he didn’t just leave the door, because on the other side, wearing a nervous – yet still determined – face, was Keith.

“Oh, Keith, what’s up?” He acted nonchalant but he was simultaneously worried, elated, and anxious just from seeing that it was Keith.

“Uh… I wanted to thank you,” Keith awkwardly cleared his throat, “for standing up for me at breakfast…” He shifted his feet and stared at the doorframe as if it was the most interesting thing he had ever come across. “You didn’t have to.”

Lance felt his cheeks light up but he tried to play it off cool. “Yeah, no, no problem. I was just in the neighbourhood,” He did not play it off cool. Just in the neighbourhood? Wow, “and you know how I do. I see a wrongdoing and I just have to right-do it.” He needed to shut up immediately but words just kept spewing out of him. Keith was looking at him with confusion and if Lance could, he would also be looking at himself that way. “Protect your honour, y’know! Because we’re a team. A _good_ team, you and I. We’re like, the right side of Voltron. Red and blue. That makes purple, I’m sure you’re aware. Purple is a good colour. Like the Galra! Which you are. And that’s no reason for Allura to bash on you.” If Lance said anything else he was sure he would explode. Keith looked almost concerned for Lance’s wellbeing.

“What…?” Keith responded after he was sure that Lance had finished rambling.

“I’m trying to say that you’re welcome?” It was phrased as a question. Keith nodded, still looking slightly perturbed. “Do you…? Do you want to come inside…?” Lance gestured into his room.

Keith shifted between staring at Lance and the opening into his room. “Yeah, sure.” He finally settled on, then he side-stepped Lance and wandered in.

Lance was sure he was going to decline the offer, but nope. He was busy having a mini heart attack over the fact that Keith had just entered his room in the middle of the night. What was he even going to do now? Play games? Talk about something? He was pretty sure that Keith didn’t want to talk about being Galra. A topic, that’s what he needed to think of. Quickly, Lance!

“What’s your favourite dog breed?” He turned around to see Keith investigating the room but he stopped after he heard Lance’s question. Suddenly, Lance realized how ridiculous a conversation topic that was.

“Favourite dog breed? I guess… pointer.” Keith shrugged.

Lance, as not-subtly as he could, gave Keith a quick onceover. “Yeah, you seem like the type.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He narrowed his eyes.

“It just means that you’ve never seen an Airedale spaniel.” Lance gestured vaguely.

Keith scrutinized him for a moment. “Are you okay, Lance?” Keith turned to better face him.

Lance scoffed, “Of course! Why wouldn’t I be? Are _you_ okay, Keith?” He headed past Keith into the adjacent bathroom. _Find a new topic, quickly, quickly_. Keith awkwardly stood there, unsure of what to do. After a moment of Keith not following, Lance poked his head out from around the corner and stared at Keith. “Are you coming?” He asked.

Keith raised an eyebrow. “Am I coming into the bathroom with you? No, I wasn’t.” He deadpanned like it was the most obvious thing.

Lance’s cheeks heated again and he glared. “I’m just doing my face mask.” Disappearing back into the bathroom, Lance waited for Keith to join him.

Keith hesitantly entered, glancing around the bathroom just as he had with Lance’s room. “You use face masks?” he asked. His expression was soft and curious. It hurt Lance’s heart. Keith made his way over to the other side of the counter where there was an open space and he lifted himself up by his hands to sit down. His legs dangled off, tapping against the base.

“Yeah, do you wanna try it?” Lance asked, holding one of the little jars out towards Keith.

The other boy inspected it with a disgusted expression. “That goes on your face?” he asked, staring incredulously at Lance. “No offence, but it looks like curdled milk.”

“Keith, it’s fine!” Lance laughed. “C’mere.” He scooped some of the cream out of the container and approached Keith. In response, Keith moved his legs apart so that Lance could get closer. Lance made a sputtering noise. He wasn’t sure he could actually go through with this without saying or doing something completely ridiculous. Cautiously, and making sure he kept his eyes on the jar in his hands, he stepped forward until he was in between Keith’s legs. “Alright,” his voice squeaked.

Keith leaned forward. Lance’s heart was beating rapidly and his stomach was fluttering. Trying to keep his hands steady, Lance stared at Keith and gently spread the cream along Keith’s face. Keith was staring intently at him and watching his every move. It was difficult to keep his eyes on what he was doing and Lance flicked his gaze up to meet Keith’s a couple times. Keith’s eyes were so pretty. What colour was that? Purple? They were mesmerizing and Lance didn’t want to look away. Continuously staring at Keith was weird, though, and he had to focus back on the face mask. He trailed his fingers delicately across Keith’s skin. It was so soft. Lance could stand there caressing Keith’s face forever if Keith let him.

If Lance said that he wasn’t taking more time than was needed to put Keith’s face mask on just so that he could continue being close to him, then Lance would be a liar. The face mask had a slight pleasant smell in itself, but Keith had his own smell which made Lance want to bury his face in Keith’s neck. It was like cinnamon sticks, or a cassia tree, but softer and lighter, almost like a vanilla. Lance couldn’t describe it very well but he loved it.

Keith lifted his chin up so that Lance could get part of his neck easier. That didn’t help Lance’s desire to shove his face in Keith’s neck. Lance barely touched his fingers along Keith’s throat but he quickly pulled his hand away as if burned when Keith’s swallowed. Every movement that Lance made felt like walking in a field of land mines. He felt obvious, as if he was wearing an ‘I’m In Love With Keith’ shirt. At any moment, Lance expected Allura to burst into his room and curb stomp him for trying to steal her man. Not that Allura was exactly seeking Keith out in light of recent events, but still.

Once Lance could no longer put off finishing the face mask, he pulled his hands away and stepped back. Keith had closed his eyes by that point but when Lance moved away, he opened them, lidded and tired. Lance stood next to Keith, in front of the sink, and began applying the same mask to himself. Keith just sat, observing him.

“Where did you even get that?” Keith asked. He lightly removed the jar from Lance’s hands so he could look at the outside.

“The space mall had a stand. They said they were having a sale but I think it was a scam.” Lance shrugged. “I bought five of them anyway, though.”

Keith snickered, “What will you do when you run out?”

“We’ll go back to the mall,” he explained, pausing to look Keith dead in the eye. “I will turn this ship around.”

“I’m sure Zarkon would wait for you to get more face cream,” Keith said sarcastically.

By that point, Lance had only applied the cream to the one side of his face, but he was startled out of his concentration when he felt something cold on his other cheek. Shifting his eyes over, Lance found that Keith was spreading the mask along just as Lance had done for him. Was Keith trying to kill him? Was he teasing Lance because he knew? Keith’s face was so tired and soft. The look in his eyes was tender as he helped Lance, who just stared at him out of the corner of his widened eyes.

Keith very quickly gave up after he saw the look on Lance’s face. “Sorry…” he mumbled, rinsing his hand under the sink.

“No, it’s fine.” Lance cleared his throat. “It’s… cool…” It was not cool. Lance was dying. Fast as he could, Lance finished up his mask and left the bathroom. He returned with his pajamas from the closet. Keith just stared at him, not moving from his spot, and Lance stared back. He lifted the pajamas so Keith could see them but the boy still didn’t move. “I’m flattered, but I’d rather change without you watching,” Lance smirked and raised an eyebrow.

Keith’s face turned red, incredibly so, and he hopped off the counter as quickly as he could. Racing out of the room, Keith muttered an apology without meeting Lance’s eye. Lance felt his own heart twittering in his chest even though he kept a calm exterior. Keith was killing him. Even Keith’s embarrassed flush was enough to throw Lance off and it was honestly tragic how deep Lance was. He closed the door behind him.

As Lance changed, he thought about the fact that Keith was sitting in his bedroom at that moment. What was Lance’s plan? How long was Keith going to stay? Was he planning to leave while Lance was changing? Lance hoped not. He also hoped that Keith _would_ leave. Lance wasn’t sure he could handle sitting awkwardly with Keith there and not try to hold his hand. He was going to end up doing that creepy thing he did where he kept finding reasons and excuses to touch Keith. It was insane how badly Lance wanted to run his hands through Keith’s hair.

Once he came out of the bathroom, Lance found Keith leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. He was awkwardly picking at the leather of his jacket. Lance put his day clothes back into the closet and then made his way to the bed. Keith watched him the entire time, expectantly.

Lance was already on a streak for saying weird stuff and it hadn’t gone wrong yet, so before he could second guess himself, he just blurted out the first thing he had been thinking, “Can I braid your hair?”

Keith’s eyes widened. Lance waited, hoping Keith wouldn’t call Lance out on how lovey he was being towards him. “Is this another mullet joke?” he sighed, exhausted. “Lance, I’m tired and–”

“No!” Lance held his hands out. “I just think… I just wanted to braid it…” He deflated a little bit at the end of his sentence.

Keith searched Lance’s expression for a moment then sighed again and uncrossed his arm. He kicked off the wall and sauntered over to the bed. Lance scooted over, making room for him as Keith lowered himself onto the bed. After pulling his boots off and lining them up beside Lance’s bed, he curled himself onto the mattress. His side was in front of Lance and he stared at him nervously, with a cautious glint to his eye. “Do you know what you’re doing?”

Lance felt like he needed to ask for permission to touch Keith, but that also felt weird, so he just moved extremely slowly. Collecting the hairs around Keith’s ear, he sectioned it off into three parts. “I have little sisters,” he explained. Tightly pulling the outside pieces into the middle, he glanced over to meet Keith’s eyes. “They like having their hair braided. Sometimes they braid my hair too,” he laughed.

“Isn’t your hair too short?” Keith asked, a small smile on his face.

“That doesn’t stop them!” Lance finished up the braid. Reaching down to retrieve Keith’s hand, he ignored the warmth of it and handed the braid off to him. “They liked to practice doing makeup on me too.”

Keith snorted, “Were they good at it?” He ran his finger along the braid while still holding it in place.

“Not really, but I made it work.” Lance began pulling some more hair together to make another braid. Keith smiled, huffing a laugh. “Your hair would be really nice if it wasn’t a mullet, seriously, what is this?” Lance secretly thought that Keith’s mullet framed his face perfectly and looked very nice, but that would pose a problem if he voiced it out loud, so instead, he insulted Keith.

“Shut up,” Keith warned. “You’re growing a mullet too.”

Lance paused, taken aback. “Am not!”

Keith let go of the braid in his hair, disrupting all of Lance’s work, and reached his hand back around Lance’s head. He sifted his fingers through Lance’s hair at the nape of his neck. Lance choked a bit when Keith’s hand got tangled in his hair. His hands were warm, even through the gloves.

“Heh. Then what’s this?” Keith teased. His voice was significantly lower and Lance jerked back. The move was miscalculated though and he fell backwards onto the bed, dragging Keith down with him. He landed with Keith on his chest. It hurt a bit, the way they landed, but Lance was busy trying to not spontaneously combust. Not a single thought he was having was platonic. Keith’s hand was still behind his head, cradling it, but as soon as he realized what had happened, Keith pulled back. His face was just as red as Lance was sure his own was. “S– Sorry!” Keith hopped away as if he had been electrocuted. Lance missed the feeling of Keith pressed up against him but there was less danger in having Keith not be up against him.

Keith quickly started putting his boots on, getting ready to leave, and Lance panicked. “Wait!” He nearly fell off the bed in his attempt to sit up but he caught himself before he did. Keith paused. “You can stay here if you want?” Every alarm bell in Lance’s mind was going off, telling him to shut the fuck up. He just could not, for the life of him, stop making this entire encounter completely awkward. “Like a sleepover! We already did face masks and braided each other’s hair,” he let out a horribly strained chuckle, “might as well just… stay…”

There was a considering look in Keith’s eye before he started shaking his head. Lance’s heart plummeted for a moment, but then Keith was dropping his boots again, along with his socks, removing his jacket, and unclipping his fanny packs. When he began undoing his pants, Lance startled a little. “Keith!”

The other boy paused and stared at Lance. “What?” His eyebrows furrowed, confused. He didn’t wait for a response, just ditched his pants on the floor, then he crawled into the far side of the bed, next to Lance. Keith shuffled around a bit before settling. “I’ve never been to a sleepover, but if you kick me in the middle of the night, I will shove you off the bed and claim it as my own.” Keith curled up against the wall, snuggling into the pillow. His hair flowed out behind him, part of his braid still intact.

Lance observed him for a moment, wondering if he had already fallen asleep and this was all a dream. Keith had just undressed and hopped into bed as if it wasn’t destroying Lance’s heart from the inside out. He could have gone to get his pajamas, Lance wouldn’t have minded. Guess not, though. Lance wiggled under the blanket, doing his best not to touch Keith. He faced the other way, toward the rest of the room so that he didn’t seem creepy. “Goodnight, Keithy boy,” Lance muttered.

“Night, Lance,” came the muffled reply.

Lance didn’t think he would sleep much, but eventually he drifted off.

 

◊ ◊ ◊

 

It had been three or four days since Lance and Keith had had their impromptu sleepover and Lance was still thinking about it. The two of them still hung out constantly and they were even closer to each other than before. During a breakdown Keith had over being rejected by Allura, Lance had been there for him, comforting him. Multiple times, Lance had debated just telling Keith that he was head over heels for him but he always decided against it.

Over that course of time, they had continued on as Voltron would. Keith and Hunk had gone on a mission to collect scultrite while he, Shiro and Pidge had infiltrated the Galra space station, Beta Traz. And if Lance gushed to a Yupper about Keith, then at least no one else was there to see it happen. Keith was a little bit frustrated after returning, which he later learned was because of Hunk’s insistent comparisons between Keith and Galra Keith, as though they were different people entirely. Keith wasn’t happy about that.

Another change, a better one, was that Allura had grown less and less angry at Keith. She had begun to talk to him properly again and she didn’t glare at him anymore. Most of the looks she gave him were sad, almost guilty or conflicted. Sometimes, she would steel her gaze, set her shoulders, and speak to Keith as if she was putting her entire heart into it, but something would always shrivel in her eyes when he would glare at her, hard.

One time, Lance had overheard Allura speaking with Coran in the bridge. He hadn’t heard much, hardly anything, really. Just a quick, worried utterance of; “how could he ever forgive me after I’ve betrayed his trust,” and then Lance was leaving. All the same, he knew Allura felt terrible. It was proven further when she had approached Lance the day previous;

  _“Lance! Lance, wait a moment!”_

_The last thing that Lance wanted to do was to wait a moment when he heard that voice. Briefly, he pondered just hurrying away or pretending he didn’t hear the call even though they were in an empty hallway and there was no way that would work, but eventually he did turn around. Allura’s shoes clacked to a stop in front of him._

_“You’ve been close with Keith as of late, yes?” she asked._

_That wasn’t what Lance thought she was going to ask and something about her question irked Lance. On one hand, he could see her genuine concern – about damn time – but on the other hand, she had absolutely no business being near Keith after what she had done._

_“Yeah, I have,” he answered curtly._

_“How is he?” she tentatively asked, searching Lance’s eyes._

_Lance squinted slightly. “Fine,” he said. “He’d be better if he had your support,” Lance gritted out. It was true but Lance hated it._

_Her face just changed into an expression of pain. She nodded. “Thank you, Lance," she muttered, an air of resignation in her tone. Bowing her head, she spun around and made her way back down the hallway._

Maybe that should have been a hint to Lance that soon Keith and Allura would patch things up, but he was too busy with Keith.

Lance was stretched out on the couch of the lounge with the rest of the Voltron limbs. Pidge was resting her back against Hunk’s side with her legs sprawled out across the couch while she was one her computer. Hunk was chatting with Lance about movies and tv shows. Keith was at Lance’s side. He looked like he was on the verge of falling asleep, his eyelids were closed. Every time Lance would make a joke, Keith would snort or let out a breathy laugh and Lance would know that he was still awake.

The door to the lounge opened, drawing everyone’s attention. Allura stood awkwardly in the doorway. It was very odd to see her looking so nervous and upset.

“Everything okay, Princess?” Hunk asked.

“Yes, thank you, Hunk.” She smiled but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Um… Keith, may I speak to you for a moment, please?” She looked to him hopefully, if not a little embarrassedly.

Everyone looked to Keith. The boy in question shared a look with Lance briefly and then stood. “Uh, yeah. Sure thing,” he answered coldly. Lance watched carefully as Keith rounded the couch and followed Allura out of the room.

Lance scrambled along the couch, practically crawling over Hunk and Pidge so he could get a view of them in the hallway. Pidge and Hunk didn’t complain, however, as they seemed just as interested in what Allura had to say.

“Is there something I can help you with?” Lance heard Keith ask. There was a bit of irritation in his tone. Even with his back to the lounge, Lance was sure that Keith was furrowing his eyebrows angrily.

Allura stared at the floor. “I… I just wanted to say…” She met Keith’s eye then. “The Galra, they’ve done terrible things. Destroyed entire civilizations. They took my family. But, in time, I’ve grown to consider you and the paladins my family. So, when I learned you were Galra, I… I didn’t know what to think. I thought you had been deceiving me. I wanted to hate you.” Her voice was determined.

Keith dropped his head, looking to the ground. “Allura… It’s–”

Allura cut him off, “But it’s not you. It’s me.” She appeared angry with herself as she stared at Keith. “My anger has blinded me for too long. I’m so sorry I misjudged you.” Lance could tell that she was genuinely sorry. “You’ve proven, it’s not what’s in your blood. It’s who you are that counts. You are an essential part of this team, Keith, and not just as the Red Paladin.” Before Keith could respond, she rushed forward to hug him. It was less of a hug so much as it was her pressing herself up against Keith and burying her face into his shoulder, but she continued on anyway, “I hope you can forgive me. I would really like to spend more time with you, Keith.” The last part was mumbled into his shoulder.

There was a pause of silence in which Keith slowly wrapped his arms around her waist and hugged her tightly. “Me too,” his voice was barely audible and he copied her, resting his chin on her shoulder as well.

Allura smiled. Suddenly, Keith lifted her up off her feet, carrying her by the waist. She let out an embarrassing squeak. “Keith! Put me down!” He just chuckled and rocked them both back and forth. Allura’s feet dangled and she struggled against Keith’s hold, although she was smiling. “This is not funny!”

 _“I’m_ laughing!” Keith teased, not letting her down.

She tried to push away from him but that nearly toppled the both of them over. Smiling down at him, but still with a guilty expression as though she knew she didn’t deserve Keith’s forgiveness, she quietly spoke, not loud enough for anyone in the lounge to hear.

Lance swallowed thickly. There was a rising feeling in him that urged him to cry, but he held it back. He had to look away from them hugging in the hallway. It was just too much for him. He faced the wall and slouched down onto the cushions. Pidge and Hunk both looked at him, brimming with sympathy and pity.

“It doesn’t necessarily mean anything, Lance, it could just be–” Hunk began to reassure him.

Lance clenched his eyes shut and cut Hunk off before he could say anything further, “Don’t.” His voice sounded broken. Pidge suddenly latched onto his arm and Lance let himself fall into her. Hunk pulled them both over into a hug.

Don’t get Lance wrong, he was thrilled that Allura was done being prejudiced against Keith. He was glad that they could be together again. Keith had poured his heart out to Lance before, so he knew how much this moment meant to Keith, but it didn’t hurt any less to see the boy he loved, loving someone else and being loved right back.

“I’ll catch up with you guys later, okay?” Keith called into the room. He didn’t seem to notice the group hug going on, or he didn’t care. Lance could hear the relieved smile in Keith’s voice even without looking at him. A small tear rolled down Lance’s face as he listened to their footsteps disappear down the hallway.

“Oh, Lance,” Pidge muttered, nuzzling her forehead into Lance’s upper arm. He curled his arms around his two friends and let the tears fall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun Fact: I had to look up "scents that people like" to name Keith's scent because I can't smell and I don't know what I'm doing.


	5. Mizaranta

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter! That can only mean good things!

Dinner rolled around and by that point, Lance had finished crying into Hunk’s and Pidge’s shirts. He sat at the table with everyone else, pretending he was a well-put-together, charmer that hadn’t been breaking down over a boy earlier. Well, he would have been doing that, if everyone else were there at all. There were missing two members. The seat at the head of the table and the seat next to Lance were both empty. It only hurt Lance further that Keith and Allura hadn’t shown up at all. He ate his goo silently, trying not to imagine what they were doing that they couldn’t make it to dinner.

Right at that moment, Keith and Allura entered the hall. There was a small smile at Keith’s lips and Allura looked determined. Something about that made Lance very nervous. Everyone turned to them, watching. Rather than splitting up to go to their respective seats, they both stood at the head of the table together, staring back at everyone in anticipation. This was even weirder. Allura glanced over at Keith, who gave her a reassuring nod. She turned back to the table.

Something in Lance flooded with dread. They couldn’t be… announcing anything, could they? Everyone could tell they were together, Lance didn’t need to hear the confirmation out loud. It would make it all too real and would dash all of Lance’s hope to shreds. Any chance he had with Keith, no matter how minimal, would be immediately burned right before his eyes. His heart beat faster and his stomach sank. Lance was holding his breath without even realizing it. He prayed to deities he didn’t even believe in that Allura and Keith would not say the words.

“Paladins, I believe I owe all of you an apology,” Allura began. Lance suddenly let out a rush of breath, causing everyone to look at him. He gave a sheepish look and turned back to Allura. “Especially you, Lance.” Allura continued, “The way I have behaved in regards to Keith’s heritage was completely unfounded and uncalled for. It was unfair to Keith, and it was unfair to all of you. I let my own experiences cloud my judgement.” Her eyes locked onto Lance. “Lance, I am sorry about the way I acted towards you. I also want to thank you for accepting Keith so readily while I was stuck in my ways, you truly live up to your title of Blue Paladin.” She turned back to everyone else. “I am deeply sorry.”

Next to her, Keith nodded and smiled to the ground.

“It takes a lot to own up to your mistakes, Princess,” Shiro spoke up.

“If Keith can forgive you, then I can too.” Pidge raised her fork to the ceiling.

Hunk hummed in agreement and Coran smiled at her, proudness in his eyes.

The only person who didn’t respond was Lance. He stared at Keith. At the very least, he was glad that they weren’t announcing anything. But, he wasn’t sure if he could forgive Allura for what she had said. The way that she had treated Keith had taken a toll on the black-haired boy, although he had tried to pretend it didn’t, and Lance had worked hard to pick up the pieces. Allura was genuinely sorry, Lance knew that. He just wasn’t sure. His eyes shifted over to Keith. Those purple eyes were staring at him expectantly, waiting for Lance’s reaction.

“Keith didn’t deserve that, but I can forgive you,” Lance replied carefully.

There was an odd look in Keith’s eye, but it wasn’t bad. Allura nodded deeply. “Thank you, everyone.”

After that was decided, Keith moved around the table to sit back into his seat in between Lance and Shiro. Everyone had turned back to their meals and the conversation was in full swing again. There was laughing and smiling. Sometimes, Keith would add something, just as he had before, and sometimes, Allura would do the same. Everything was as it had been, but the team was stronger.

Near the end of the meal, Keith leaned over to Lance. No one noticed, since they were all listening to Pidge yelling about something and laughing. Lance was confused at first, but Keith gestured for him to lean over too. Abiding, Lance shifted his head so that Keith could reach his ear. The breath on his skin tickled and he giggled at the feeling. Keith huffed into Lance’s ear unexpectedly as he laughed. “Stop moving,” Keith whispered.

Lance giggled again. “Sorry,” he whispered back. By that point, Shiro had noticed them but Lance didn’t mind.

Keith pulled away from Lance’s ear. Quietly as he could, he muttered, “I’m trying to ask you something, stop.”

“Okay, okay.” He steeled himself and waited for Keith to move back to his ear. It was moments like that when Lance could almost convince himself that he and Keith were dating. He didn’t want to think about Allura. He didn’t want Keith to think about Allura. It caused his heart to hurt whenever he reminded himself that getting close to Keith was dangerous as long as he was with Allura, but after crying earlier, all Lance wanted was for Keith’s attention to be on him.

“Meet me in the bridge after dinner,” Keith instructed, ghosting his lips over Lance’s pinna.

Lance pulled away to look at Keith. Wow, he was really close. “Why?” he whispered to Keith’s face.

There was a sneaky sort of smile on Keith’s face and he murmured a quick, “because,” before turning back to his food.

Lance stared at him for a moment before returning to his goo also. Coran was telling a story and Lance tuned into that. He glanced up across the table. Hunk and Pidge were giving him so questioning looks and making eye shifts, signaling Keith. Lance shrugged his shoulders but he could feel his cheeks reddening a bit.

That was the longest dinner that Lance had ever gone through. Even longer than the awkward ones before Allura come around on the idea of Keith being Galra. Lance felt stupid for expecting anything from Keith, because he knew that it was only going to let him down again, like it always did, but he couldn’t bring his heart back down the reality. He knew it was ridiculous to hope. It was great that Keith wanted to hang out with Lance as a friend and he should have been happy with just that. Keith didn’t owe him anything. But it wasn’t enough for Lance. He wasn’t sure it could ever be enough. Lance would take what he would get, but it would never be enough.

Once Keith had finished, he said goodbye to everyone and headed down the hallway to where everyone assumed to be his room. Lance, however, knew that he was going to the bridge. At least, he hoped that was where Keith went. It would be awkward if Lance showed up and Keith wasn’t there. Allura didn’t say anything other than goodnight like the rest of the team.

Lance tried not to look too twitchy while he ate the rest of his food. He didn’t want anyone to question him. Finally, he finished and brought his plate to the kitchen, washing it and returning it to its place. He hurried along through the halls to the bridge. The way he was running was a little bit desperate to anyone who saw it, but Lance pretended it was totally normal. He reached the bridge doors and stood outside, taking a deep breath, then opening the door as nonchalantly as he could manage.

Inside, Keith was sitting on the floor in the centre of the room. His hands were behind him as he rested on them, his head tilted back. The planet map was up, covering everything in the room with holographic constellations. It was dark in the room, illuminated only by the glow of the computer stars. The entire atmosphere was calm and mellow.

Lance stepped into the room as quietly as he could, closing the door behind him. Keith must have heard him enter, but he didn’t turn around. He realized once he was closer that there was music playing softly. It was coming from Keith. Well, not Keith himself, but something in Keith’s possession. Lance’s shoes clapped along the floor even as he tried his best to be silent. He settled down into the open space next to Keith, somewhat confused. Keith didn’t look at him though, he was still inspecting the stars around them. A soft, blue glow lit up Keith’s face, reflecting off his eyes and causing shadows to pour down his neck and shoulders.

Lance pulled his legs into a cross-legged position and stared at Keith for a moment longer. Then he followed Keith’s line of sight, wistfully gazing at the stars around them. The music continued to play.

_We woke up in the movie. Seeing stars in our eye, and the songs we fall asleep to, help to guide us through the darkest night. ‘S alright. We’re alright._

_You’re a pain and I feel you._

Lance snorted. “What song is this?” he whispered.

Keith smiled. “I don’t know, Pidge let me borrow her player.”

The music played on softly, the lyrics soothing as they filled Lance’s mind. “It’s nice,” Lance commented after a moment.

 “I think it’s pretty fitting too.” Keith nodded his head along to the music. Quickly sitting up, Keith turned to face Lance, grinning. Lance was confused for a moment as the guitar solo filled the space between them, then it slowed down and Keith began mouthing the words in time to the song, “ _You’re a dick, but I love you. It’s just sometimes I wish that we didn’t dissect things. I feel sick when we argue.”_ The song ended with a couple more notes and Keith just closed his eyes and tapped his foot.

Lance felt that sickly little whisper of hope once more in the back of his mind. After the song had ended, Lance decided that he had to tell Keith. Keith had to know. “Keith…” The boy cracked open his eyes and glanced to Lance. That just made Lance’s nerves rev up again and he willed his heart to stop pounding. “I need to tell you something…” He paused, swallowing thickly.

“What is it?” Keith asked, turning more serious, opening his eyes. There was a worried tilt to his eyebrows.

Lance took a deep breath. “I know you’re with Allura, but I–”

“Whoa, wait,” Keith interrupted. He shifted his legs around to match Lance’s position. “ _With_ Allura?”

“Yeah…” No need to rub it in, Keith. “Everyone can tell. You’re not exactly subtle about it…” The conversation was going much worse than Lance had anticipated, and he hadn’t thought it would go well in the first place. He would be lucky to not get punched but he also didn’t need Keith going on about Allura to his face again.

Keith stared at Lance for a moment, his cheeks turning red and his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. “I’m not– You thought we–” he sputtered. “Allura isn’t my girlfriend!” Keith settled on. His eyes were as side as saucers. “We’re just friends!”

The last time Lance had felt as confused and lied to as he did in that moment was when he learned that barcode scanners only scan the white part and not the actual bars themselves. “You were naked in her room!” Lance pointed out, staring at him incredulously.

If it was possible, Keith went even redder. “I was not naked in her room!” he shrieked. “I was wearing _clothes_!”

“Okay, you were in your underwear, but that’s not any better!” Lance cried.

“We were playing Mizaranta!” Keith’s shoulders were up to his ears, which were red by that point.

Lance squinted in confusion. “Is that a codeword for doing the do, because I didn’t need to know that!”

“No!” Keith’s voice was higher than Lance thought he was capable of.

“Cleaning out the cobwebs with the ol’ womb broom, were ya, Keith?!” Why was Lance yelling at him? What kind of interrogation was this?

Keith had gone so red that it wouldn’t have been surprising if he passed out right then. “ _What the fuck?!_ _No!_ ” He roughly shoved a hand over Lance’s mouth so he couldn’t speak. “It’s Altean monopoly, sort of! And she told me to come in my pajamas but I sleep in a shirt and briefs so I just came in my regular clothes, and she told me that if that was how I slept, then she had no problem with it. It was a secret because were all supposed to be sleeping and she didn’t want anyone being tired the next day, but she knows I have trouble sleeping anyways.” He paused. When he was satisfied that Lance wasn’t going to shout at him, he removed his hand. “Nothing is going on between us.”

“But… you’re so close…” Lance argued weakly.

“You’re close with Hunk.” Well, Keith got him there.

Lance sighed. Half because he was relenting and half because he had never felt so relieved in his entire life. A small chuckle escaped him and he met Keith’s eyes again. “I was so worried,” Lance admitted.

Keith furrowed his eyebrows. “Why?”

A sudden panic overtook Lance again. “Because I…” He thought back to all the moments he had shared with Keith and all the times he had thought maybe, just maybe, he had a chance. And there Keith was, outlined by the gentle blue light, looking so beautiful and endearing. That was his shot. All he had to do was tell Keith. “Keith, I love you.” Keith’s eyes widened, but Lance wasn’t ready to hear his response, the possibility of rejection was too much, so he kept speaking; “Every time I think I can’t fall any deeper, you go and do some stupid stunt in your lion or you laugh so hard you snort and I just…”

There was an awkward silence between the two of them in which they just stared at each other. Then Keith broke it when he dropped his head forward, his bangs hanging in his face, and laughed. It wasn’t an insulting laugh, it was more relieved than anything. Lance felt even more nervous and unsure than before. Keith looked back and his eyes were glistening with emotion. He shot his hands out and gripped the collar of Lance’s jacket, yanking him down. Their lips connected roughly. It took Lance a moment to realize what was even happening, but when he did, he began moving his lips against Keith’s. It was kind of sloppy and very desperate, but nothing could have been better.

Keith chuckled lightly, pulling away from Lance, who was also laughing. They met in the middle again, more in rhythm with each other. Lance flattened his palms along Keith’s neck, sitting up on his knees and moving closer. Keith took this as an invitation to fall backwards, dragging Lance along as he chased Keith’s mouth. Hovering over Keith, Lance caressed his cheek before moving upward to run his hands through Keith’s hair, never breaking away from his lips.

Lance could feel his heart beating out of his chest and every part of him felt lighter than air and hot. So hot. The warmth radiating off of Keith was incredible; his hands pressing into Lance’s shoulders and neck, his breath on Lance’s lips, his reddened face when Lance cradled his cheeks, it was all so very hot and inviting.

Eventually, they both began to run out of air and Lance pulled back. Their noses were a hair’s breadth apart. He stared down as Keith’s chest heaved underneath him. Keith’s eyes were lidded, and his lips were parted and red as he panted lightly. “I love you too,” Keith whispered, his breath flowed over Lance’s lips as he broke out into a smile.

Those were the words that Lance had dreamt of Keith saying to him for so long that it was enough to bring him close to tears. Of course, he couldn’t cry in front of the beautiful boy that was below him, that would ruin his suave demeanor. Instead, Lance pressed another kiss to Keith’s lips, much tamer in nature however. It ended much faster and Lance began quickly pressing kisses all over Keith’s face. On his forehead, his nose, his cheeks, his eyelids, his temples, his chin. And all the while, Keith giggled.

“What’re you doing?” Keith asked, still grinning and tittering.

Lance paused for a second, kissing Keith’s lips one more time. “Right now? Wondering if this is even real,” he mumbled.

Keith’s arms snaked around Lance’s neck, guiding him down until he was resting on top of Keith, their legs tangled. “It’s real.” He tilted his head to kiss along Lance’s jaw.

“Are you sure? This can’t be real.” Lance was in a dizzying state of awe and he let out a noise somewhere in between a laugh and a gasp at the feeling of Keith’s mouth.

“Well if it isn’t, then this is the best dream I’ve ever had,” Keith answered, lost in the kisses he was peppering over Lance’s cheek.

Lance laughed, high off the euphoria he felt from Keith returning his feelings. “So, are you gonna be my main squeeze or what?”

Keith snorted, sinking his head back to the floor. “Not if you call it that,” he complained.

“My beau?”

“No.” Keith was trying not to smile but it wasn’t working.

“My fellow?” Lance suggested.

“Absolutely not.”

Lance thought for a moment. “Oh my god, Keith, you Texas, country boy! Be my swain!” His eyes lit up with excitement.

Keith stared at him for a moment, his grin widening. “Alright, whatever,” he answered.

“Yes!” Lance cheered. He kissed Keith again, slow and lovingly. Keith followed his pace as well. They stayed like that under the stars for a while. It wasn’t all spent kissing, but they did do a lot of that too. Most of it was just cuddling while creating names and stories for the constellations they made from the stars in the solar system they were visiting. Eventually, Lance fell asleep with his head in Keith’s lap and Keith carefully removed his jacket, folded it up, and shimmied it under Lance’s head as a pillow. That way, Keith could curl up next to Lance with his arm as his pillow. He left the stars up around them.

 

◊ ◊ ◊

 

The next morning at breakfast, Lance had never felt better. He was on top of the world. Waking up was actually something he was dreading for fear that it really was all a dream, but it wasn’t and Keith was still there. They had entered the dining hall later than everyone since they had taken time to chat for a little bit and then retreated back to their rooms so they could, at the very least, make themselves presentable. Keith’s hair sort of gave away what had happened to an extent.

Once they were fit to be seen, they were hurrying through the dining hall with their goo. Lance, as usual made a big show of his entrance while Keith just skirted along behind him to reach his seat.

“Good morning, guys!” Hunk greeted them. Everyone else just sort of nodded.

“Good morning to you too, Hunk!” Lance’s grin was almost concerningly wide. “And what a _grand_ morning it is!” Keith settled into his chair, staring at Lance and willing him to sit down and shut up. No such luck, however, as Lance plopped into his spot next to Keith and continued speaking, “You would not believe this!” He had everyone’s attention. “Keith is not so immune to my incredible charm and he has agreed to be my swain!”

Everyone stared at Lance in confusion for a moment. “What?” Pidge asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

Keith sighed, “He means ‘boyfriend.’”

“Yes! My darling, my dear, my lover, my steady, my significant other!” Lance smirked as Keith’s face got progressively redder and redder until he was forced to hide his face in his hands from embarrassment.

Suddenly, at the end of the table, Allura slammed her palms on the table, nearly knocking over her bowl of food. It drew everyone’s attention. “I told you he returned your affections, Keith!” she shouted gleefully.

Keith stared at her, eyes widened in horror. “Shut up!” he hissed, but his voice was weak from the fact he was close to spontaneously combusting. She just laughed and smiled sincerely at him.

“Whoa, whoa. Hold on.” Shiro held up a hand to gather everyone’s attention. He looked especially confused. “Weren’t Keith and Allura dating?” he asked.

“Not that I’m not totally stoked for you guys, because I am! But yeah, I thought so too,” Hunk added, shifting his gaze between Keith, Lance, and Allura.

Even though Keith still had some residual blush dusting his cheeks, he threw his hands up in exasperation. “Why does everyone think that? We’re friends!”

“Maybe it’s because we’ve never seen you with friends?” Coran offered, holding a finger up.

“Maybe Keith’s friendship style is flirty!” Hunk looked excited as he joined in on the theories.

Allura nodded. “I can confirm his friendship style is flirty.” Keith looked completely betrayed.

“A flirtationship, if you will,” Lance pondered.

“Lance!” If the conversation continued then Lance was sure Keith would actually melt into a puddle of mortification.

“Who would have even guessed Keith is a flirty friend?” pointing her spoon at Keith, Pidge chuckled.

“As long as he’s flirtiest with me, there will be no problem!” Lance gave an eyebrow wiggle to Keith.

Keith groaned and started shoving goo into his mouth. Shiro patted him on the back, laughing light-heartedly in the way he did when he wanted to let Keith know they were all just joking. “I’m happy for you two!” Shiro added.

“We all are!” Allura grinned.

“Remember what I said, Lance!” Pidge reminded, “Hot, badass kids!”

Lance squeaked slightly. “Pidge, stop!” She was going to scare Keith off and they hadn’t even been together that long.

“What?” questioned Keith.

“Nothing at all! Let’s all eat! Looks fantastic, Hunk did you make it?” Lance hurriedly changed the subject.

Hunk raised an eyebrow, confused. “It’s food goo from the–”

“Always the culinary genius!” Lance interrupted. Everyone decided to let Lance be weird and just returned to their breakfast, chatting comfortably about this and that. Eventually, Lance managed to calm himself. Keith was none the wiser.

Underneath the table, Lance’s hand inched over, searching for Keith’s hand. Instead, he basically just rested his hand on Keith’s thigh. It was too late to undo that, however, and Keith practically jumped out of his seat. The entire table clattered and everyone halted their conversations to look over at Keith, who wore a startled expression. It quickly morphed into one of anger, his cheeks tinting red again.

Lance’s face matched his in terms of how red he was. He sputtered for a moment, holding his hands up in front of his chest. “I was looking for your hand,” he explained weakly.

Keith stared at him a moment longer. “That wasn’t my hand.”

“Lance, can’t you keep it in your pants? We’re eating!” Pidge complained, a disgusted look on her face.

“ _His hand!_ I swear I was trying to find his hand!” Lance tried defending himself but everyone at the table was shaking their head in disbelief.

Keith held his hand out to Lance with his eyebrows furrowed in irritation. Lance smiled, hoping Keith would forgive him. Their fingers interlocked, wrapping around each other and Lance hummed happily as their hands dropped to rest between them. It took Lance a moment, but as they sat there, he began to realize that Keith was holding his hand as tightly as he was capable of.

“Hey, Keith. Could you maybe lighten your grip? You’re crushing my hand…” he whispered.

Keith just lifted their hands and pressed a kiss to Lance’s fingers. Lance flushed a bit while Keith just smirked smugly at him. He dropped their hands again. Keith didn’t let up his grip though, but Lance didn’t complain again either.

 

◊ ◊ ◊

 

“Keith. Listen to me. Don’t.” Pidge glared at him.

“I wouldn’t do it, Keith,” Hunk warned.

Lance shook his head. “You’ll regret it.”

Allura leaned closer to Keith, turning to whisper in his ear without taking her eyes off the board, “Do it.”

Keith smirked and stared Pidge dead in the eye.

“Keith,” Pidge warned. Keith shuffled through a bunch of gems in his hands. “ _Keith,_ ” Pidge warned again.

He didn’t listen, he just tossed two gems over to Coran, who put them in a container and handed back a card to Keith. “Algalt Wormhole now belongs to Keith of Team Galtean,” Coran announced.

Pidge launched herself across the board, attempting to tackle Keith. They both screamed. “I almost had all four wormholes, _you dick!”_ Pidge tore at Keith’s hair.

“Hey, hey! Lance, I saw that.” Shiro pointed across the table to where Lance was using the distraction as an opportunity to scoop gems out of the container next to Coran.

“Lance!” Coran cried in disbelief. “How could you?!”

Allura glared at him with a seriousness that shouldn’t have been used in simple board game. “You know what happens to people who steal from the Balmera, don’t you?”

“Now you’ve done it.” Hunk muttered. He almost couldn’t be heard over Keith and Pidge’s yelling.

Coran reached over and grabbed some of Lance’s gems. “Wha–?” Lance tried to stop him but Allura slapped his hand away.

“You must return twice as much as you have stolen!” she snapped. “And you have to wear the Shame Hat!”

“The what?” Hunk asked, confused.

Coran pulled out a hat from the container that the board game had come in and slapped it onto Lance’s head. It was a giant cone shape that flowed out and down Lance’s face. He tapped on it from the outside, having trouble determining where the thing ended and in what ways he could move his arms. “Okay, I’m sorry, I won’t steal anymore, but I’m not going to wear this.” He moved to pull it off his head but found it wouldn’t come off. “Uh… Allura…” He tugged harder. “It’s not… It’s not coming off!”

“This is the punishment of the cheater!” Allura tutted.

Hunk and Shiro were trying not to laugh. Suddenly there was a loud snort and everyone looked over. Keith was on his stomach with Pidge straddling his back. Pidge had her fists latched into Keith’s hair, with her glasses askew and one of her shoes across the room. They were both paused, mid fight, staring at Lance.

“Nice hat, Cone Head,” Pidge snickered.

“Doing some welding later, Lance?” Keith added. Lance gave them both a flat, unimpressed look.

Hunk interrupted before either could say anything else, “Can we go back to the game, guys?”

Pidge gripped Keith’s hair tighter. “As soon as this fucker gives me Algalt Wormhole!” she shouted.

“Trade me Sixort Solar System and I will!” Keith yelled back.

“How about I trade you with not smashing your face into the floor?!”

Shiro sighed off to the side and Hunk looked even more worried as Pidge raged on.

Keith thought for a moment. “We have healing pods.”

Lance stumbled around with his depth perception for a moment. “Don’t hurt him! I have plans for his face later!” His voice was muffled through the mask.

Keith looked over to him and slowly, a sly grin appeared along his face. “ _Babe._ ”

Pidge grimaced.

“Pidge, please let Keith go,” Shiro sighed, resorting to begging at that point.

“Never!” Pidge yelled.

Keith suddenly stood up, jostling Pidge around. She let out a startled screech and dug her knees into Keith’s side, piggyback riding on him as he began walking over to Allura’s bed. “Give me Sixort Solar System, or give me _death!_ ” he screamed, reaching over his head to grab Pidge’s arms and flip her over his head. She slammed into the mattress of the bed and bounced once before sliding over the other side, screaming the entire time.

Lance laughed. Coran and Shiro looked like they needed to nap for the next three days. Hunk worriedly hurried over to check and see if Pidge was okay. And Allura cheered. “Team Galtean shall rise!” She called. Keith sat back down next to her and high fived her. She moved to rest on her knees behind him, plopping her chin on top of his head, some of her hair fluttering into his face. Reaching a hand over Keith’s shoulder, she flicked the dice in Shiro’s general direction.

“I can’t believe you teamed up against me, that’s so cheating!” Lance complained, his speech garbled through his Shame Hat.

“There’re more people on your team!” Keith countered, shifting a piece of Allura’s hair out of the way.

Pidge and Hunk came rushing back over to join the game again. Spaceships players and pieces were strewn about the board and half the gem holders had been overturned. No one minded though. “Team Earth! Team Earth! Team Earth!” Pidge called. Hunk copied along.

Lance ignored them, still addressing Keith, “Why wouldn’t you team up with me?! I thought you loved me!” He waved his hands around wildly, bopping himself with his own helmet.

“There is no love in Mizaranta!” Keith pumped a fist in the air.

“Only war and winnings!” Allura pumped her fist in the air too, then they both fist bumped before Allura tumbled off of Keith to sit next to him again. Lance made a dramatic gasp and placed his flat hand over his chest in offence.

Shiro started to roll the dice, seeing as it was his turn. The board was a total mess though. “Just because it says that on the box, doesn’t mean we need to actually hurt each other.” He stared pointedly at Pidge, who looked only mildly embarrassed. Shiro landed on Planet Jablin, which happened to be owned by Allura. He collected some gems from his gem holder and held them out toward Allura who was across the table. Before Shiro could hand off the gems, Lance swiped his hand upwards, slapping Shiro’s hand away and sending the gems flying.

“Don’t pay the enemy!” he yelled.

“Lance, you can’t just decide who to pay and who not to pay,” Hunk reasoned, completely baffled.

Pidge stood again. “Fight the system!”

Shiro dropped his head into his hands and sighed deeply but no one paid attention as Pidge was busy flipping the entire board across the room, scattering all the pieces. There was all out chaos.

“Well all need to calm down!’ Hunk shouted.

Allura shrieked, “If any of those pieces got into the vent, you will be finding them!”

“Free market! Communism!” Pidge was probably just yelling words. “Overthrow the government!”

“Meet me in the pit, Keith!” Lance picked up Keith by his waist and carried him over to the bed while he fought against it.

Keith tumbled onto the bed, laughing, “Can’t fight with a bucket on your head!”

Coran just subtly left the room when no one was paying attention.

It suddenly made sense why Allura would want to keep her and Keith’s game nights secret, but they were a family, and if a family can’t beat each other up over a board game and pretend it never happened afterwards, then who can?

Keith leaned up from the bed and kissed the glass of the Shame Hat. Lance laughed and smiled down at the boy. Even the screeching going on around them wasn’t enough to deter them. Keith pressed his forehead against Lance’s helmet, staring into his eyes. “I’ll still step right over your dead body for Sixort Solar System,” he whispered lovingly.

“Kinky.” Lance wiggled an eyebrow. That earned him a kick to the gut and he tumbled backwards, laughing.

“Had it not been for the laws of this ship, I would have slaughtered you!” Pidge screamed from somewhere across the room, a lilt of laughter in her voice. She threw a gem piece at Allura, who easily dodged, also giggling.

They may have been a family, but game nights just weren’t their thing. It at least provided a nice distraction from the impending doom of the final battle with Zarkon. They were all a little worried about it, but no one liked to talk about it. At the very least, each of them knew that the others would have their backs through the entire thing, as a team, as a family. Allura and Keith were as good of friends as ever. In fact, Keith had grown closer with the entire team. Moreover, true to Allura’s claim, Keith was an unintentionally flirting friend. He didn’t even realize he was doing it too. Lance found it endearing. He found a lot of things Keith did endearing, and judging by the way that Keith would smile at him when there was a moment of silent contemplation between the two, Lance was sure that Keith felt the same.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that is that!  
> Thank you so much for reading this story, I hope you enjoyed it! If you did, don't be afraid to check out my other works, might like those too, possibly, maybe.  
> The song they listened to was Songs We Fall Asleep To by Frank Hamilton. Good tunes, I promise.  
> Mizaranta isn't a real game, made that up. I sincerely hope mizaranta isn't a real word in any language because that could be weird.  
> Anyways, bye!

**Author's Note:**

> My dude, bud, bro, mate, pal brought it to my attention that my username sounds like a knock-off, discount, bargain bin version of Shakespeare and I see what she means now, but it's actually just a combination of the names Khoshekh and Jasper.


End file.
